Shattered
by LilManiac
Summary: Kind of a prequel to Glass Dagger,co-written by gpshaw... hopefully will make a good story... R & R please! (finished)
1. Prologue

**Well, here it is gpshaw. The prologue/ start of story I promised you!!**

**I hope you can help me make a story for you. It's a bit short... but I didn't want to do any more without your permission!!!**

_**Prologue-**_

Erik. I will always remember that name. And there is no way in hell I'll ever forget the person behind that name.

He saw what I overlooked. He had managed to uncover a secret that me and my friends have been fighting desperately to keep under wraps. A secret that could change everything, for everyone.

We met on less than happy terms, when I was up against the worst kind of odds. He saved me.

And now, it was about time I returned the favour.

_**---------------------------------------------x-------------------------------**_

_One year earlier..._

"I'm back!" I yelled slamming the door to the house I shared with four other people. I dropped my keys on their place in the key rack, then dropped my shoulder bag on the floor beside me.

"About time you did" Casey said coming down the stairs "If I don't leave now, I'm gonna be late for my interview, and your _friends_ are at it again"

"Hey, they're _your_ friends too" I replied as I finally heard Ian yelling at Amanda. He shrugged and smiled, still fussing with his tie. I grabbed it, looped it the right way, then fixed it so it looked neat. Then I stepped back and looked at his whole outfit. He was wearing his 'job-hunting' suit, as he so often told me. Not a bad look either.

"Besides" I added "I'm the one working here. Not to mention going to Uni"

"Well, Sal works too" he protested as I followed him into the dining room "And so does Ian, but..."

"Amanda's got full-time Uni, and she helps when she can" I said. I had to stick up for her. She'd been my best friend since we were little. Besides, it was true.

"Yeah, well..." he didn't have anything to say as he grabbed his C.V "Maybe I'll just pretend..."

"Yeah, you should"

"Well, I'm off" Then he smiled, and I knew what was coming "That offer for a date is still open"

"How many times do I have to reject you before you get the point?" I asked rhetorically. He shrugged, looked embarrassed, then hurriedly left.

"Oh, and by the way Jade, the mail's on the counter" he called back "Sal even put them in separate piles for us"

"Great, thanks!" I replied just before the door slammed. Then I headed to the kitchen, seeing Sal _had_ put them in separate piles, and even put little post-it notes to say which pile was whose. Sal, short for Sally, is a neat-freak. She likes everything to be in just the right place, in just the right order. Casey, on the other hand, is anything but. Mess-o-rama, he was. But somehow, we managed to keep them both happy. Ian and Amanda on the other hand...

"I _told_ you, the guy was just checking me out! Not..."

"Well it didn't look that way to me!" Ian yelled back as I picked up my pile, shuffling through it, then dragging myself, along with my bag, up to my sort-of-messy-but-still-neat-enough-to-walk-into room. I flopped down on the bed, which smelled of my boyfriend, and breathed deep. He'd surprised me the night before. He'd come to check on me, and when I begged him to stay...

I opened the envelope from the Uni, went through the test results, happy that I'd passed them all. Barely. Then the others... most were just from my family and people I used to know back when I was still living in another country. But there was one I was reluctant to open, and I saved it for last.

It was from my team-member, Robert. It was a plain white envelope with nothing but my name on the front, and _from Robert_ on the back. He was the only one who actually kept his head straight anymore. Ian and Amanda are the other team-mates, but we've learned not to rely on them when there's trouble. It just goes hot-cold with them.

Funny, the fate of the world rests on four nineteen year-olds who can't even work together.

I opened it, and pulled out the fairly blank piece of paper. It read;

_Meet me at the usual spot, usual time. We may have a situation._

I folded it back up and sighed. I'd been in a fairly good mood all day, but this... this just soured it, big time.

_**----------------------------------------x------------------------------**_

"Look over my shoulder" Robert said. I gave him a look that said 'you gotta be kidding?'. I was a short girl, not comically short, but still short enough to stop myself from seeing over his shoulder. And I was leaned against the wall too. Robert, on the other hand, was over six foot, and towered over me as he leaned on the wall too, only with his hands on either side of my head. It was a ruse, to throw people off. To make people think we weren't waiting around for anyone.

Robert smiled "Well then, look _under_ my shoulder"

"Ha ha, very funny" I said, but did as he instructed. I saw the elevator door ding, and two men in dark blue suits stepped out into the near-deserted parking lot. They both looked only a little older than Robert and I.

"Is it... them?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's them" I replied in a hushed whisper. I turned my attention back up at him. His icy blue eyes stared right back as he nodded. I sighed and slumped against the wall.

"Well, now what?"

"Now we follow"

"What?! They'll..." Robert clamped a hand over my mouth before I could say more.

"We _follow_" he said again, putting meaning into those words. I rolled my eyes and moved his hand away from my mouth, then stepped out from under him, walking away. He followed, brushing his dark curls back away from his face. I swear, there are times when he can almost look cute. But... then he wrecks it entirely by saying something really stupid.

"You do know what to do, don't you?"

"Yes I know what to do, I'm not stupid!" I hissed, but kept walking.

We walked parallel to the two men, who were laughing and joking. Probably not for long. They hopped into a car, and got ready to drive off.

"Now's the time" Robert said.

**Well, what do you think we can make of it? Anything? Keep in touch, i'd like to hear your opinions on this...**


	2. Enter Erik

**gpshaw- I hope you don't mind me writing what you wanted me to next. I'm kind of using your idea, and making it blend with my own. If you don't want me to use it, I'll get rid of this chappie ASAP, ok?**

It was dubbed the 'Applegate' project. A way to let the world know what was going on. It worked, although only to a certain extent. The Animorphs were discovered, and had to go into hiding. Their backup plan? Us. The shape-shifters.

Ian, is actually an alien boy named Ithiell, who can pass himself off as a human. When he came to earth, he met Robert, Amanda and me, and our blood mixed with his in the heat of battle. And then, before we knew it, we could become whatever we wanted. A table, a chair. Even animals. We met up with another of his race, called Rtaia, but she had to leave the planet for a short time. We don't know if she's still alive or not.

Their race? Chanaiben. Translated; Changeling.

Years later, we met up with the Animorphs, by chance, and began to fight the alien forces together. Then, they decided to start up the Applegate project, a book series aimed at revealing the Yeerk threat. They didn't, however, mention us for the specific purpose that if they _were_ discovered, we would be able to take over. We could remain in hiding, and get into and out of places that they now couldn't. Like the school for example. But, as they expected, they were discovered, and we covered their tracks as well as we possibly could.

We spread the rumour (discretely) that they were dead, and someone else finished the book series, creating the ending that no one expected and talked about just like anyone reading a book series would do. I don't even think they believed it.

Anyway, with the Animorphs in hiding, we were the cleanup crew. Ian (Ithiell) and Amanda began to move on, feeling utterly helpless, and instead turned their anger and despair on one another. Robert took over 'leading' for a while, and I reluctantly followed, since I couldn't do anything else except try to keep them safe. After all, I'd agreed to it.

And now, we were standing in a car park, trying to figure out if these two knew about the Animorphs. Robert had followed the two, after hearing them talking about it as they passed by him on the street. They had said something about if it was a football game against the Yeerks and the Animorphs, that they'd bet on the Yeerks to win. It could have been a casual passing statement. Then again, it could mean they were Yeerks and they thought their victory was secured now that the Animorphs, or 'Andalite bandits' were dead. We couldn't be sure. So, Robert suggested we follow.

Shape-shifting is a lot different than you think it is. It doesn't have that crunching that morphing has, and none of that itchiness. And it takes a lot more focus, because we don't rely on DNA like the Animorphs did. It's more like melting, and reshaping. There's a little icy feeling when you start, but that slowly fades as you focus and become more like the shape your doing.

And we were going to shape-shift.

We ducked behind a support pole in the car park, careful not to been seen by them or anyone else, both focusing on the shapes we wanted to become. This time, it was animals.

My nose and lips melted together as my eyes grew big and round, and I suddenly could see into every dark shadow in the car park. Then the tattoo of white and brown spotted feathers emerged, and then became more 3-D, spreading down my body, and across my clothes. Beside me, I saw Robert shrinking at an insane rate. So much that I was soon taller than him, even as I began my own shrinking.

(Who's taller now?) I gloated in thought-speak as my head distorted and my fingers began to stretch, even as I began shrinking at a faster rate. I watched as his skin became hard and more like a roach exoskeleton, and the two extra legs sprouted from his chest. It was disgusting. It was necessary.

Finally, I was a cute little barn owl, standing next to a very revolting cockroach. But that was the plan. I was to follow them by the air, and Robert by car. When I managed to drop him on the car of course. I felt like I was the fighter plane, and he was my bomb. My very own little roach bomb. Horray for me.

(Hurry, before they drive outside!) Robert said, and I flapped my wings and grabbed him in my talons, flapping hard again and getting a little higher before I managed to get enough lift to turn around and watch as the car started driving out.

(After it!)

(Like I don't know that!) I retorted, beating my wings and following them to the car park entrance, blowing outside just before the car got onto the street, then circled around and dropped a little, just enough for me to see my target. I then let Robert go, and like a well-guided missile, he hit the top of the car, grabbing with his little roach feet and holding on for dear life.

(Thanks Jade. Now keep up with us. I don't want to loose you)

(I'll do my best) I said as I flapped after them, watching as they slowly pulled away. I think the only thing that helped me keep up with them was the red lights. I flapped hard, and kept up as much speed as possible, watching with keen owl eyes as they slowly started moving away from me.

(I'm losing them!)

(Do what you can. If you loose us, I'll just have to guide you here)

(How will you even know where you are?)

(I'll find a way) he said, sounding snippety. Then again, he had a right to. He was riding on the top of a car moving at about forty miles an hour... as a one inch long roach. Not the best way to travel.

Soon, they stopped at an old abandoned warehouse, getting out of the car and just looking up at it. They talked, I think, then walked off to go inside by a side door.

(Uh, Jade? Can you hear me?)

(Yeah, I can. I'll be there in a few minutes. What'd they say?)

(They said they were a little worried about meeting the 'visser' here. Something about a plan too, but I didn't hear the rest of it. Bug hearing)

(Well, do you think we should check it out?)

(Yeah. I think we should. Maybe the Animorphs can help us out here)

(Okay. Almost there)

(Good. I'm going in as a roach now. After all, they won't think a roach to be out of the ordinary in an already filthy environment. You go fly and come too, ok?)

(Fly? Oh _maan_... wait a second, you're going in now? Wait for me!)

(No time. What if they're already talking? I need to get as much info as possible if we're going to stop this plan of theirs)

(Well... all right. But be careful. You might be a roach, but if you get squashed...)

(Yeah, I know. Going in) Then, there was nothing from him. I landed behind the car, crawled the best I could as an owl under it, then shrunk rapidly to fly. Only one thing worse than becoming a roach, would probably be this; a fly. I fired my wings when I was done, and took off in a crazy loop, up and towards what I hoped was the warehouse, wishing I had Tobias's eyes to guide me there. I went through one of the windows up high, then flipped upside down and landed on the ceiling, taking in the whole picture.

There were the two guys, standing in front of a blue alien-deer and two Hork-Bajir. There were two other humans standing at the other small door of the warehouse, looking like they wanted to run from the room.

"Yes visser" one of the men was saying "Everything is on schedule. Providing work for jobless people by promising to create something out of this warehouse has so far been a success. We have a hundred fifty people so far that have signed up for our trial job placement, and there are certainly more to come"

(Good. I expect the portable kandrona to be here in twelve earth hours from now. When it is correctly positioned, we will begin infestation of all those who come through that door) Visser One said, laughing like he'd just won the lottery. I could imagine what Marco would say to that; _they're not earth ours, they're just hours, all right?!_

"Yes visser. We expect to see twenty new recruits at the office tomorrow morning, giving the Hork-Bajir enough time to get into position as well as to set up the kandrona. We will have at least seventy before the day is done visser"

(Good) he smiled with his Andalite eyes (I will leave this to you, and wait for your report)

(Robert?)

(Yeah, I heard. I'm gonna try to follow...)

(NO! They'll see you!)

(But if I figure out where the visser is...)

(He's going where he usually does; the Blade ship! Now get out of there and let's find a way to get this information...)

(A ROACH!!) Visser One roared in my head, almost making me loose my grip on the curved ceiling.

"But visser, the Andalites... the Animorphs... are dead"

(Then why does this roach follow me? It is in the daylight, and it followed me! It is not an ordinary roach, KILL IT!!)

"Yes visser" I saw the two men trying to stomp on the roach that was darting in and out and around their feet like mad. It then darted under a stack of empty boxes that were piled high all around the room.

(Robert you IDIOT!! Hang on, I'm coming down!) I buzzed from the ceiling, heading straight down like a stunt pilot, landing between a whole stack of boxes.

(No, don't! They'll...)

(It's too late you idiot. I'm becoming something else and saving your ugly roach behind!)

(Damn it Jade! All right, when I get a second I'll join you. Just remember to...)

(Oh shut up and remember to thank me after I've saved your sorry butt!) Wings disappeared as I grew, and white and black striped fur ripped across the sickening skin of the fly. Ears grew and slid to the tops of my head, and tiger eyes replaced the gross compound fly eyes. Pads grew from sticky fly feet, and my two extra legs melted and slurped back into my chest. Very soon, I was full tiger, crouching in the middle of several stacks of boxes, listening to the two men shoving boxes aside, stomping away with their leather shoes. Visser One was still screaming at them to 'kill it' and from the sounds of it, the Hork-Bajir had gotten in on the stomping act, and I heard boxes being sliced in two as the four of them rampaged.

Soon, a roach practically slid into my left paw.

(Is that you?)

(Yeah, is that you?)

(Oh come on. Do you think a full grown tigress would be here in a warehouse?)

(Uhh, yeah) I saw him slowly start to grow, and I sort of shoved him behind me as I heard the four coming closer, gathering my legs under me and preparing to pounce. Seconds later, a Hork-Bajir head appeared over the boxes, and....

"Hwwwrrrrooooaarrrrr!!" I let loose a roar, and leaped! He tried to fend me off, but I was too close for him to use his blades, and I latched onto him with my powerful jaws, biting down hard and waiting as he suffocated...

Slash! Hork-Bajir blade cut into my flank! I roared and jumped off the first one, turning my attention to the second one, the one who'd cut me. I dodged another blow, and leaped! Clawed his face, making him stagger back. He fell, and skewered himself on his own tail blade!

(Andalite! GUARDS!!!) Visser One roared as the two men came at me fumbling in their shirt pockets for...

Wham! They never saw the polar bear that came up behind them, hitting their heads together. Robert!

(Now, what was that about saving my butt?)

(Not now Robert!) I cried as I dodged a blow from the vissers blade, barely, and ducked as the two at the door began firing at us. But I knew what was coming. I knew the visser never went anywhere without a whole battalion of Hork-Bajir. The humans were just trying to buy them time.

(I'll get them) He ran, lowered his head, missed a shot by the first, and head-butted him square in the chest. He looked dazed, but then fell like a ton of bricks. And while the second was distracted, I raised one frying-pan sized paw and hit him over the head, knocking him out for a while.

(ANDALITE!!!) Visser One roared and rage and fury. He came at us, but we dodged to either side of him, making him turn to try and get us, that tail whipping furiously...

And then his friends arrived. Ten Hork-Bajir, all armed to the teeth. Three were carrying weapons, but the rest... well, the really didn't need anything. They were death on two legs.

(Now what?!) I cried as we gained some distance before turning around to face them, skidding on the metal floor as we turned.

(Now we fight)

(This is _so_ not fair!) I cried, feeling fear welling up inside me. We were only supposed to follow these guys... now we might have to die, and there was no way to call for backup!!

(This war isn't fair) he said softly before the first three reached us, and as their team-mates fired the Dracon beams at us.

(AHHHHHH!!! I'm hit!) Robert cried as he roared in pain and rage, ramming into his first opponent with all the raw power that a bear possesses. He fell back, and onto one of the ones firing at us. I dodged a blow as well, but another burned my left ear off as I leaped up at another, and I was nearly skewered by an elbow blade, but I managed to leap clear. I landed on the floor, then jumped back up and tore him apart from behind.

Three down, but seven more to go!

TSSSSEEWWWW!!!! The tip of my tail was gone!

(Keep going! We give up now, we're toast!!) Robert screamed, even now he was fighting on three legs.

(Yaaaaaahhhh!!) I screamed as another blade cut deep in my left flank, and I spun around and went straight for his face, and ripped at his eyes. He fell back screaming and clutching now bloody eyes.

(Serves you right!) I snapped as I picked out my next victim, but two Hork-Bajir were on me before I had time to blink! One nearly separated my head from my shoulders, but I jerked away just in time... and got nailed by the second one! He now reduced my tail to a bloody stump! I roared and jumped up, slashing him, but another took his place! Then... the worst kind of thing that could ever happen to anyone in battle, happened.

Wham! One sliced cleanly through my spine, at the middle. I was immobile from the waist down!

(Robert!) I wailed, but I heard the bear roar, and saw he was fighting the remaining four, all at once... and losing.

I roared up at my opponent, trying to still sound menacing, but he knew I was defeated now, and he smiled. He raised his blade, preparing to cut straight into my skull...

"Hrrrrroooaaarrr!!" Something hit the Hork-Bajir, ripped at his face, then leaped off with the Hork-Bajir screaming in pain. I turned my now fading eyesight to see...

A cougar! One of the others? An Animorph?

I watched with my vision going blurry the whole time, to see the cougar race at another Hork-Bajir, slash, then jump away! Then another! Finally, Robert had a fighting chance! He barrelled into the first one, sending it careening into one of his fellow controllers, then slashed the last one, sending the blood everywhere!

Now they were all gone! We'd one... and we were still alive!

(Thanks Jade)

(Robert? That wasn't me. I'm... here) I called back, watching as Visser One backed up towards the door he'd obviously come in from, morphing human as he went. His face showed contorted anger.

"I'll get you, and when I do... there will be _NO_ mercy!!" He yelled, then disappeared out the door. It was only then that Robert turned to look at me, then towards the cougar. I tried to pull myself towards them on my front legs, but the bodies and the blood stopped me from going anywhere fast.

(Jade, are you all right?) Robert came to me now, looking concerned.

(I... I can't move... feeling a little...)

(Well... whoever you are, you can't demorph here. Visser One will have cleanup crews here in a matter of seconds) that voice. It was human!

(Demorph? Man have you got your information wrong) Robert said as he picked me up as best as he good in his good paw, standing up to his full height and walking awkwardly towards the big double doors. I dangled like a bean baby. The cougar kept pace with us.

Robert head-butted the a door, sending it flying open, with it banging noisily against the side of the warehouse, then coming back in, but the cougar... whoever he was... stopped it. We walked weirdly towards the small stretch of woods, lucky to not have been noticed, where Robert placed me on the ground gently.

(Change back Jade. It's all right now)

(Oh...okay) I said fuzzily, trying to clamp my mind down on the one image; the human me. But so many others...

(Come on Jade. Remember to focus) to the cougar he said (Who the heck are you. And by the way, thanks)

(Me? Who are _you_?) he retorted, giving nothing away. Fading...

(Jade, remember what your fighting for. Remember your duty. Now CHANGE BACK!!) That got me. Somehow. A part of my mind latched onto the image of the girl standing in the mirror that morning. The tired but happy eyes...

Slowly, but surely, I began to shrink. Organs shifted and replaced themselves, and slowly a whole human girl appeared where a broken tiger lay just seconds before. Robert was beside me, and he helped me up off the ground, supporting me when I stumbled a little. The cougar however...

(Wow! You're both... human? How did you get the morphing technology?)

"Morph? Sorry, we don't morph, we shape-shift. And its not technology, it's blood. And a bit of fate too, I guess"

(What... I...)

"Wait... how do _you_ know about morphing technology?" I asked as soon as Robert let go of me. We both stared at him. The cougar... whoever he was... sighed, and then his form began to change. In the darkness, I thought I saw him gritting his teeth, but I convinced myself it was just a trick of the light.

But we watched as a guy not much older than us emerged from the sleek cougar body. He stood, and looked at us with a face that couldn't seem to decide what to do or say. Finally, he sighed again.

"My name is Erik"

**Yeah... good? Whatcha think???? Workable now? Or no?**


	3. Trusting strangers

**gpshaw: Well, here's your chapter. I had to change a few things around because it wasn't making much sense, and they didn't really go in with what the story has already told you. Hope you don't mind though...**

_**Chapter: By gpshaw**_

My name is Erik Cortez Bishop. I am a member of the strike force known as Glass Dagger. To the Yeerk invaders we are a group of Andalite rouges trying to finish the work of the deceased Animorphs. To the American public we are thought to be a terrorist organisation, when our attacks make the news which they don't do that often.

Our team is an eight person team that has been remarkably successful at attacking the Yeerks without leaving much of a trail. Our team is also implanted with special hearing aids that block the ear canals. Translation: we are immune to infestation. But as the saying goes "no one is bullet proof" or dracon beam proof, or tail blade proof... well, you get the idea.

What I am about to tell you is the truth, this story needs to be told for the hope of the human race.

Jade: noun, a rare metal used in carvings. That at least is the definition you are likely to think of. However, I have seen another side of the word Jade. Jade is a name that strikes fear into the Yeerk empire, Jade is one of the strongest women on the planet. Jade knows things that even I didn't know, and now that I am nearing death, I realise that she may be the one who saves the world.

Funny, when I met her I thought she was just a stupid girl who was walking right into a Yeerk infested warehouse...

****

_One Year Earlier_

_September 7th 2006_

I was on vacation from college and enjoying it. For the most part there was no Yeerk activity, but unfortunately, I knew that this meant me and my team needed to be more vigilant than ever. I walked towards a warehouse where there was an unusual amount of Yeerk activity. I had been scoping out the place out for about a week and determined that something big was going to happen soon.

As I went into an alleyway to hide until I could morph, I thought I saw an owl swoop down behind the car that two men in blue suits had just gotten out of moments before. I dismissed it as an unlucky owl who was looking for some road kill. I began to debate which morph to use which would be best to spy on the meeting when I heard a voice in my head. That voice made me shudder.

(A ROACH!!) Someone must've replied to the Visser because then I heard,

(Then why does this roach follow me? It is in the daylight, and it followed me! It is not an ordinary roach, KILL IT!!)

A few minutes later I heard battle sounds... and I was pretty puzzled... then I heard a desperate thought-speak cry for help. I decided to join the fray. I closed my eyes and focused on my cougar morph. My legs turned inward and I fell, catching myself on the dirty floor. My hands became paws. My ears collapsed and migrated upward into my head (Did I forget to mention that I felt every bit of this?) Fangs grew from my mouth as my eyes became a cougars eyes and my nose became a cougars nose.

When I was fully cougar I ran into the warehouse. There was an animal on the ground, I couldn't really identify it because of all the blood, but the Hork-Bajir above it looked ready to kill it. I roared and charged, and leapt at its face, leaving deep cuts where his eyes used to be.

Then I raced at the four Hork-Bajir that were battling a lone polar bear. I slashed it, then jumped away, then into another one and handled it. It wasn't long before the polar bear got the hint and slammed into one of the remaining two Hork-Bajir, then finished off the other one with a deadly swipe of its claws.

The rest of the conversations are fuzzy in my memory, because the next thing I do remember, clearly, is demorphing in front of a human boy and girl.

"My name is Erik" I said.

"I'm Jade" The girl said, then pointed to the taller boy. "This is Robert"

"What were you two doing in there?"

"What were _you_ doing in there?" Robert asked with a tone of annoyance. I thought I saw Jade giving him a dirty look.

"Spying"

"Gee, that was funny spying" He replied sarcastically.

"Hey, give me a break! I saved your lives..." I was cut off when a the sound of chopper blades sounded from not far off.

"Shit!" Robert snapped, then turned to me "We have a serious problem. Do you have a safe house, or somewhere you can lay low while the heat dies down?"

"No, the hotel I'm staying is about an hours walk away..."

"Not time then, come with us!"

"But Robert..." Jade started.

"Whoa, I can't do that!"

"You don't have much choice in the matter. Jade's house is closest, and it's in a part of town they won't think of looking. Hotels will probably be searched" I finally gave in, knowing he was right.

"Do you have a buzzard morph?" I asked. Jade looked stunned.

"I already told you, we don't morph, we shape-shift. We don't need DNA like..." the blades sounded much closer now, and Robert hurried up "But if you morph it, we might be able to imitate it's shape"

"Okay, because three buzzards are less likely to attract attention here" I said, then morphed. I watched as the two stared at me as I began to shrink, then started their own change. Shrinking in morph is probably one of the most painful things a person can experience. Soon, three buzzards took to the sky, and I instructed them on how to fly like normal buzzards (since apparently they didn't get the instincts either). Soon, we were circling like three normal buzzards.

(Why do you grit your teeth when you morph? It isn't supposed to hurt) Jade said, and alarm bell rang deep inside my head. But I dismissed it, and instead answered her question.

(Our ability to morph came from intercepting Andalite transmissions) I told her (One of our team members, Becky, was able to get them by attaching a tin foil to a radio antenna or something like that, well anyway, we created a blue box based on information we got from an Andalite scientists transmission but we didn't do a very good job of constructing it. We feel every little change we make in our morphs)

(Ouch! How can you stand it)

(Well most of the pain goes away after we finish demorphing but it is intense. We rarely morph insects, and we rarely morph birds or animals the opposite sex of us)

(Why do you... Ohhh) Robert said. A few minutes later, I saw a house.

(There it is) Jade said, then lead us into an empty room where we all became human again.

"Welcome to my humble home" Jade said with a bit of a smirk "This is the spare bedroom you can use until you can get back to your hotel tomorrow, and you can use this phone," She pointed to the phone on the nightstand "To call your friends"

I thanked them, and they left me so I could have some privacy. I called Karen and told her that I was OK and to call the others to make sure they knew where I was. I hung up, hearing muted voices downstairs, then I thought I heard someone knocking on a door. I crept into the hallway outside, then down to the steps, peeking over and seeing several people in the living room, some of which weren't human...

**I hope I did ok. And thanks for giving me a direction in this story. I think I know where I want to take this now. I might need your help with a few minor details. But other than that... it's all good.**


	4. Secrets and trouble

**My chappie now! Cool or what?**

**Jade**

"What the _hell _were you thinking?!" I snapped at Robert when we were out of earshot of Erik.

"I was thinking about security"

"Security? _Security_?! He knows where I live now Robert! And if he's a Yeerk, _then what?!_"

"Yeerks don't morph. And if he really is a threat, I'd rather have him here, where I can see him, other than having him run off and tell his buddies about us"

"Well, if you had _told_ me that _sooner_..." I trailed off as I took the stairs two at a time, with Robert following close behind. I reached the bottom two steps and jumped off them, then made my way into the lounge room, where...

Amanda was sitting on the lounge next to a Chanaiben boy I knew all too well.

"Ithiell?" I asked "What are you doing as yourself? If Casey or _Sal_ saw you..."

"Casey's at his new girlfriends house..." Amanda said.

"Well, that was fast" Robert interjected.

"... and Sal is over at a friends. She's staying the night because they both need to work on..."'

"I don't care about that. Ithiell..."

"Jade, we got a call"

"From who?"

"Rtaia"

I stiffened up immediately, knowing we were definitely in trouble now.

"They're coming, _tonight_"

"Uh-oh"

"Yeah. Uh-oh. And they've got some interesting information for us"

"Like..."

"Like we don't know yet, that's why they're coming over tonight"

"I hope they're not..."

"No, they're taking the proper precautions" Ithiell assured us, then giving us a fish-eye "So, where have you two been?"

Robert filled them in, and I noticed Amanda suddenly giving me her 'I'm so sorry' look. and Ithiell nodded, looking guilty. Then there was a knock at the door. I went and opened it, seeing two young women, and a slightly older male standing in the doorway. As soon as I shut the door though, they shape-shifted back to their Chanaiben selves.

You ever want to know what a Chanaiben looks like, picture this; a lizard that can stand upright like a human, with very human arms and legs, only thinner and looking like they haven't eaten in years. The skin is rubbery like a dolphin, and either whitish-blue (a male) or a pale aqua colour (a female). Eyes that have no retina or pupil, and are all one colour. They can either be a dark midnight blue, a funny kind of green, or a stangely beautiful white-grey colour.

The only other obvious difference between the males and females is that the females have cat-like ears. The males have wings, hidden carefully under skin flaps on their back. You honestly wouldn't know they could fly unless they opened their wings and... well... flew, basically.

And now there were two female Chanaibens, and two males. Ithiell was one of them, and our old friend Lowri was the other. He used to own a ship the size of the Blade ship, but it was shot down during a battle. Only he and his First Officer, Talia, survived. She was there with him, along with Rtaia, looking as grim as I'd ever seen her.

"What's going on? You wouldn't take this big a risk for nothing" I said going over and sitting down on the two-seater lounge. Robert sat next to me. I got up and started to pace.

"Well, we heard... through coded transmissions... about your little escapade at the warehouse..." Talia said, seeming to glare at Robert. Robert ignored her.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, we heard that they've moved this little Yeerk plan somewhere else... we don't know where... to begin to infest from somewhere else, since they now believe a new band of 'Andalite Bandits' have discovered the..."

"Yeah, yeah. What else?"

"Robert" Ithiell warned. After all, he was originally the one in charge. And I knew he was more of a leader than Robert could ever be.

"Well..." Lowri picked up for Talia "We believe that this was a cover operation for something much, _much _bigger"

"Like what?" Amanda asked. She leaned forward to listen.

"Well... we're not sure. We've been able to decode bits and pieces here and there, but for the most part the links we have discovered are way too secure for us to be able to penetrate..." Lowri looked sheepish, and shrugged his thin shoulders.

"Well... that was good enough. Now at least we know what to look out for" I said, still pacing in front of the others.

"Look out for? Jade, all we know is that we busted up any chance of finding out what this..."

"Well I wasn't the one who insisted on following Visser One now, was I?" I seethed, going and standing over Robert, leaning over until our faces were inches apart. He glared at me. I glared right back.

"Guys, stop it. We're supposed to be..."

"Oh don't even say it Ithiell!" I turned on him "After all, _you're _the one..." I was cut off by Robert clamping a hand on my mouth. I was furious, and I turned and almost belted him one. But I didn't... I knew I needed to get control before I did something stupid. After all, it was just exhaustion getting to me. A look at Amanda calmed me down enough. I sat down on the empty seat next to her, taking deep breaths.

"Hey, whoa..." A voice from the stairs made us look up. There, halfway down the stairs, was Erik.

"Oh..."

"What now?"

"Well, now we tell him everything about us" Ithiell said.

_**-----------------------------------------x-------------------------------------**_

So, we did. We sat Erik down (well, Amanda went over, led him over to the lounge and sat him down) and told him everything. From the day three stupid ten year old kids took a trip into the forest out of curiosity, to the information we had just found out. We were careful to leave out any mention of meeting the Animorphs, and just told him of how my family moved from Australia when I was fifteen, and a year ago Robert and Amanda had come here to go to the same Uni as me. He was shocked, to say the least. He asked how we knew about the Yeerks. We told him about getting reports from the Chanaiben government about a parasitic race, as well as finding out about the book series. Nine years... and _I_ was surprised we were all still alive.

Then, to our surprise, he turned around and told us about the strike force called Glass Dagger. How they had been fighting the Yeerks as well, and retold the others of how he and his friends got the power to morph. Then about the things in their ears they have so they can't be infested. It was all too much... and too good to be true.

I didn't know what to make of it. Neither did anyone else. Erik seemed to still be digesting _our_ story. Finally, Ithiell made the call. We all get some rest and figure something out in the morning. Erik seemed about ready to argue the point, then I guess he decided against it. After all, he was the stranger here. He probably thought he needed to earn our trust. Well, that's what I wanted to believe.

Lowri, Talia and Rtaia left, saying they didn't want to leave their small ship unattended for so long, since it was the only thing they had to get back to their planet. Ithiell reverted back to his human form, back to the copper-red haired boy named Ian, and he and Amanda went up to their bedroom. I led Erik upstairs, leaving Robert to sleep on the couch. I gave him a reassuring smile before he disappeared into his temporary room. I then took off into my own room and locked the door.

I tossed and turned until about three in the morning, finally falling asleep with my face buried in my pillow. I woke up about four hours later, and trudged downstairs and past the snoring Robert on the couch, heading into the kitchen. I rummaged through the fridge, until I found the materials I needed to make bacon and eggs. I also found my hidden strawberry milk. Casey's work, you can be sure of.

As I cooked, I went over everything in my mind (also taking sips from my little carton of milk as I did). Images of the fight the night before... to the way Erik looked when we noticed him on the stairs. And now... the cover operation? For what? An all out war? I couldn't be sure.

Soon, my thoughts trailed over to two nights ago... to the beautiful night I'd had with my one and only. It wasn't.... we didn't think we'd... but oh, it was so perfect. And it was the first time in nine years I actually felt safe. I actually started thinking about the future. For one night, I didn't just exist. I _lived._

Marco (yes, Marco) my boyfriend, had only come to tell us that he and the Animorphs were all ok. That their last mission had been a success thanks to the information we gave them. Four months had passed since I'd last seen him, and I was afraid I'd never see him again...

I know, corny coming from someone like me, but... I dunno, maybe love does that to everyone. I recalled every minute of it... the feel of his lips on my bare shoulder... the way we moved like it was all meant to be...

I shook my head, looking down and realising I'd burnt the toast. I got it out of the toaster, swearing under my breath, and chucked it into the bin. I put some new toast in, reminding myself to watch it more closely, then worked on cooking the bacon and eggs. I grabbed my milk, took another sip...

"Hey"

And I nearly choked on it. I coughed and spluttered a bit, before turning and finding Erik there.

"Uh, Sorry. Did I scare you?"

"Uh... no. Just surprised me, that's all" I said, taking deep breaths when I'd finished coughing my left lung out. I looked up at him and plastered a reassuring smile on my face.

"Need some help?"

"Uh, maybe. Can you set the table for me?"

"Sure, just tell me what goes where" I told him, then saved the toast this time, and soon we were all having an actual edible breakfast. Robert left to scope out the old warehouse, and soon Amanda and Ithiell (now his human counterpart, Ian) left as well, going to check out the place where the two men worked. Now it was just me and Erik.

"What now?" He asked.

"Well, I can drive you back to your hotel if you want"

"Sure"

"Ok, just give me a few to get dressed and that"

"Oh, ok"

"You can use our shower if you want" I added, feeling like the worlds worst hostess "I'll just grab you a towel, ok?"

"Sure. I think I might need one" He smiled at me, and I suddenly realised it was the first time I'd seen this guy smile. He wasn't as tall as Robert, but he was fairly tall. (Then again, a lot of people were taller than me). He had an unusual shade of red hair and deep brown eyes. _Leader eyes_, my mind instantly thought. Strength seemed to radiate from him, but not something as overwhelming as Roberts. Then again, maybe I was just reading too far into my first impressions. Too far into people's eyes...

I got him the towel I promised him, and an hour later we were out the door an driving in my car. A cheap old commodore, but as long as it got me from point A to point B, I didn't care.

He directed me to where the hotel he was staying at was, and I drove just on the speed limit, getting there in about twenty something minutes. We turned the corner, and...

And saw something like cop cars and exterminator vans all crowded out the front of the building. I slowed down, pulling over to the curb, and got out. I caught the attention of a passer-by, and asked her what had happened.

"Oh, apparently some woman found like a plague of mice and rats in her room, and she got so spooked out she called the police. Now they're talking with the owners, and some exterminators were called in to get rid of them. Apparently the woman's caused quite a lot of commotion"

"Wait a second. How do you know all this?"

The girl shrugged, smiling at me sheepishly "I got hold of someone walking around just outside, and they told me what happened"

I forced a smile and thanked her, getting back in the car where Erik seemed to be waiting for a response. I repeated what the girl told me to him.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" he asked, looking like I'd just told him his horoscope and that it said he would die.

"Not for a second" I replied, smiling for real this time "I know what they're doing"

"So, now we...."

"Now we drive away and keep going, and hope when we get the chance to come back they'll be gone by then. Unless... they know who you are" I said, turning my attention from the gathering crowd to look at him. He shook his head.

"No. They might now my face, but they don't know who I _am_"

"Ah. Ok. That's good" I said, starting the car again, then putting it in reverse and doing a very fast and very crazy one-eighty, then driving back the way we came.

I don't know if Erik minded my driving or not, but I knew he was seriously thinking about what cops at his hotel might mean. In fact, so was I. And the warehouse...

It was all leading somewhere, but... _where_? And what was this cover operation hiding? I wanted to know. And I was determined to find out.

Ever heard of the saying 'curiosity killed the cat?'. Well, this little curious kitty was about to loose a lot more of her nine lives just from being 'curious'.


	5. All news is bad news

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

We drove away from the hotel. As we drove I noticed Jade was driving a little crazy, but I didn't blame her. I was feeling a little crazy myself.

I had formed a pretty good impression of Jade after a while with her. One of the first things I noticed was that she didn't immediately stare at the large scar on my cheek that ran down to my cheek.

She was very pretty. Just by looking at her I detected an air of French blood. She was, of course, nothing compared to my Karen, but still she seemed to be the kind of girl who didn't have trouble attracting guys.

Jade struck me as a smart girl, and I was glad I had found her. I was still trying to digest what I had learnt. The fact that such a big resistance could have been underway and us not know about each other. It was weird, but of course I couldn't just put an ad in the paper saying "All forces resisting the Yeerks please meet me tomorrow".

We drove in silence for a few more minutes before we reached as gas station. As we passed it I checked the name.

"Pull into this station, I have an errand to run" I said.

"What kind of errand" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"The short kind" she pulled into the station, seeming to drop the subject. I walked into the station and into the bathroom. I opened the back of the toilet. Sure enough, there was a set of lock picks hidden in there. I took the picks and opened the condom stand sitting above the toilet. I pushed aside the various types of contraceptives and found what I was looking for: two bust pistols, each with an extended 30 shot magazine along with two extra clips each and two holsters.

I debated whether or not to give one to Jade and then decided not to. If we got into real trouble then I'd give her one. I closed up the stand and wrote an obscene message on it. That was the que for Danny Estren, the man who had hidden the guns, to restock the place (with pistols, not condoms). I walked out wearing one pistol on a shoulder holster under my jacket and the other on an ankle holster under my pants. It never hurt to be prepared...

When we got back to her house we walked in to find the boy called Ian sitting on the two seater lounge. He wasn't smiling, and we walked into the living room where Jade and I sat on the couch across from him.

"OK, let's have the bad news" I said. Ian looked slightly impressed that I had picked up so fast.

"Am I that obvious?" He managed a weak smile "Well, I'll just cut right to the chase then. After Amanda and I scoped out the office, I sent her to get Robert and I went to Lowri's little ship. As I did they told me they just decoded a very important word in a Yeerk transmission. It translates to Timino"

"Timino?" I echoed "Isn't that a research company based here?"

"Yes. It's really a research lab for the Yeerks. It's where they developed the demorphing ray-which didn't work, the slave pill-which also didn't work, and pretty much every other Yeerk scientist's attempt to win the war originated here. Well... now we realise that the company is researching something else. It's doing research in the medical field"

"What kind of research" Jade asked. Ian sighed and watched as she got up and paced.

"Viral" He said.


	6. More bad news

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

"Viral?" I asked "So you mean they're trying to make a new virus?"

"Well..." Ian began slowly "We're not sure, all we know is that they are researching viruses, but most of the viruses are DNA based, such as Ebola, and HIV. We think they're trying to make a virus that would follow someone from morph to morph'

"Hmm. What about shape-shifting?" Jade asked. I'd learnt that shape-shifting was on a different basis to morphing, so it might not be a problem for them.

"I honestly don't know. Earth viruses are a weird part of this planet. I mean, I've caught things like the common cold and been out for weeks, and then I'll be bitten by a monkey with Ebola and be perfectly fine. Chanaiben physiology seems to be resistant to some viruses, but not with others, so I honestly don't know"

"Ok, so now we know the Yeerks are making a virus that may or may not affect you guys, but it will mostly affect me and my team. Is that all you have to tell us?"

"No" Ian said "I have also found out more information. The Yeerks are having a meeting at the main office of Timino. So if we could sneak in there, we might be able to get some more information on what _exactly_ this virus does"

"When is this meeting?" Jade asked.

"Tomorrow night, so we're working on the best way to get in without being seen, because the area has state-of-the-art pest control, so we're not getting in as anything small" He turned to look at me "That's where you come in Erik. You said you've had training in stealth by a CIA agent"

"Yeah I have" I answered.

"Do you know a way to get us in?"

"It would depend on the security level... but yeah, I'm pretty sure I can get us in. But if I help you I want to have my team with you"

"Done. How many are there?"

"Most of them are back in Charlotte, but three of them are here"

"How fast can you get them together?"

"I can have them all here within the hour..." I was interrupted by Jade's cell phone going off. But when I looked... I saw it was a watch that was peeping and flashing. She pressed a button and the flashing and beeping stopped.

"Yeah, what is it?" She answered. I could only hear one side of the conversation, but from the sound of her voice and the look on her face, I knew it wasn't good.

"Oh my... is he ok?... have you gone in yet?... maybe you could help him hold them off... all right, take it easy... we'll be there as soon as possible" She pressed a button and I guess that 'hung up' the watch/phone.

"Robert is cornered in the warehouse. Amanda is going in to try and help him, but from the sounds of it I don't think they'll last long. We need to help them..."

"All right then, let's go!" Ian said.

"Wait, wait" I said "Don't you have a family that..."

"No. Ian, Amanda and I share this house with two other college students... but that's not the _point _right now. Come on, we have to go!" She and Ian ran outside, and I had no choice but to follow. We jumped into her car and drove. But Jade and Ian were too focused on the impending battle to realise they were being followed...


	7. Joined fight

**I thought I'd try it like this... hope this chappie doesn't disappoint anyone! **

_**Chapter by LilManiac**_

**Jade**

I kept to the speed limit, and followed all the road rules... but barely. My heart was thudding in my ears and I had to resist the urge to just floor it. Beside me, I could tell Ian was resisting the urge to flatten my foot on the accelerator. But he knew... if we got caught by the cops now, it was all over for Amanda and Robert.

Robert.... how the heck did that guy always get himself into trouble? Did he do it on purpose? Then again... he was Robert. And in some ways, he was almost... and I say _almost..._a boy version of Rachel. He needed the fight... _relished_ it in a sense...

"He's the only I person I know that actually goes _looking _for trouble" I said out loud without meaning to.

"Huh? Who?" Erik asked from the backseat.

"Robert" Ian said, gritting his teeth. When we were stopped at a red light, I knew he'd just about had it.

"The second that light turns green, pull into an alleyway. We're going..."

"No. We drive until we're a couple of blocks away, all right?" I said, and he looked like he was about to rip my head off. I couldn't blame him.

"Trust me Ian" I said in a slightly calmer voice as we got moving again. He nodded, and turned his gaze back out the window. Finally, I pulled into an alleyway close to the warehouse. Even from here you could hear the desperate battle going on from there. I practically jumped out of the car, with the boys following my lead.

"Shift" Ian said.

"No, not here. Near the warehouse, in a stretch of woods" I said, and I thought I saw him giving me death looks. But he started running anyway, and we followed. He soon let me take over, and I lead the way to the small stretch of woods where I lay as a broken tiger not even twenty-four hours before. Inside, it made me shudder. But I also knew it was the best thing I had to fight with. Over the years, I came to know the tigers every strength... its weaknesses... it was almost a part of me now. Almost.

When we got there, we hid as far in as we could, and I gave Ian a curt nod. He was about to say something, but then the pained roar of a bear cut through each of us. Robert! It had to be!

"Let's do it" I said, feeling funny as I said that. It was almost like Rachel...

Ian was already beginning to change, falling on all fours as his knees reversed direction. Fur seemed to erupt from his skin and clothes. The muzzle sprouted from an otherwise normal human face, and a tail began to stretch from his spine. Finally, he was full wolf. He was also now Ithiell. The Chanaiben boy. And his thought-speak was stronger.

(Don't just stand there gawking!) He snapped at both of us (COME ON!!)

He ran into the warehouse, and I turned to look up at Erik.

"Here we go" I said, focusing on the image of the white tigress in my mind. White and black fur sprouted from my face, spreading down my neck and across my clothes, then down to my shoes. My ears grew more triangular and slid up to the top of my head, and as I blinked I felt my eyes shift to become the icy blue of the tigers eyes.

"Wow" Erik said, seemingly amazed as my knees reversed direction, and giant frying pan sized paws bloated out from my human hands. Muscles bulked up on my arms and legs, and my head and internal organs reshaped themselves to become the tigers. Lastly a tail stretched out from my spine, carrying the black and white striped fur along with it.

(Like Ithiell said. Hurry up and let's move it!) I yelled, turning and heading in the direction of the warehouse. I darted through the busted up double door of the warehouse where Ithiell had disappeared into just seconds before... to find a horrifying sight.

A polar and a grizzly bear... Robert and Amanda... were both against the wall, both bloody... facing at least twenty or thirty Hork-Bajir... and there were more dead on the floor. Ithiell had managed to take up a position out of sight at the side... and was waiting for the right moment ... but... this was going to be a slaughter.

_Remember what you're fighting for_, I told myself, _Remember your duty!_

I let loose a roar that would have grown men running and screaming in terror. But it was just what we needed. They jumped. Turned...

And Ithiell struck! He clamped his jaws around the throat of a Hork-Bajir and ripped until it was dead. Robert and Amanda took the chance to barrel into the crowd, fighting hard in spite of their injuries. And then I joined the madness.

Rip! Bite! Claw and leap away before getting skewered! Attack again! Rip open the throat of another that was trying t cripple Amanda! Jump away onto another! Attack! Jump up and slash again! Again! Attack! Attack! ATTACK!!

(Where's Erik?!) Ithiell yelled from somewhere in the fray as a blade cut deep into my flank, but not deep enough to stop me from fighting. But we were loosing again! There were just too many! But wait... what did Ithiell say? Erik...?

There was only four of us fighting... where the heck was he??

(Probably chickened out and left) Robert panted as I caught a flash of him barrelling past, his muzzle dripping blood.

(No, I don't think so!) I said, but... did I really know him? Maybe all he was... NO!! He suffered pain every time he morphed! No wimp does that over and over knowingly! But... where was...

BAM!! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Gunshots! But... from where? And which side...?

BAM! A Hork-Bajir that was about to cut Amanda open was down! A bullet hole appeared in his chest and he just fell!

(It's Erik! It's got to be!) Ithiell yelled as he shot past me, foam flying from his muzzle as he leaped again, grabbing hold of another throat with his strong jaws and worrying it like a dog would worry a bone. I went for the feet and the Hork-Bajir went down!

(Ahhhhhh!!) I yelled as another blow separated my lower leg from the rest of me! I collapsed in a pool of my own blood, with the battle raging around me!

(Jade!) Amanda yelled, but it was no use. She was stopped by five, who drove her back into the wall. She was desperate! We all were!

Two Hork-Bajir stood above me, smiling down at me as I struggled to get up on my three remaining legs. But they had me, and I wasn't...

BAM!! BAM!! The two Hork-Bajir were down!

(Jade! Get back with Erik and get big and mean!) Ithiell instructed.

(But I can't leave you! There are too many!)

(Look, you can't do a damn thing as you are. GO!!)

Reluctantly, I ran back out of the melee, dodging a blow from an approaching Hork-Bajir, and ran over with my three good legs to where Erik was taking cover behind a metal pier of some kind. It was half-covered with boxes and I thought that it could be the place they were planning to put the portable kandrona before we stuffed up their plan... but...

"What are you doing?!" Erik yelled as he reloaded the pistol in his hand. A pistol! I almost laughed.

(I have to get out of the tiger body! I'm no good with three legs) I replied as I began to grow... then something occurred to me.

(Have you got another one of those?)

"Yeah, why?"

(Give it to me. I might be able to use it) I began to shrink, returning to the human form I had kind of made up a long time ago. Short black hair, oriental eyes... pale face... but not too short either...

"Jade?" He stared as I kneeled beside him.

"It's me. If they see my real face... our yours, for that matter... it's all over" I said as he pulled another from a strap around his ankle and gave it to me, along with another clip he had hidden in his jacket.

"Know how to use it?"

"Just watch me!" I leaned out, took aim, and hit three Hork-Bajir before ducking back behind the pier. Erik looked shocked, but he overcame that quickly as he leaned out around the other side, firing off a few rounds before joining me back behind the pier.

"Get out of here while you can and go cougar!" I yelled to him "I'll hold them off for now"

"But they could catch you!"

"Let them bloody try!" I glared at him, before he nodded, firing off the last of his bullets before taking off towards a side door holding the jacket up over his head in an attempt to cover his face. He nearly got caught by another Hork-Bajir, but I took him out before he could get to Erik.

I fired off a few more rounds, before I had change the clip, having a little trouble with it, but managing to get it into the pistol, leaning out to check out the situation.

"_Gehalsh! _Found you!" The voice was so shocking that I barely had time to turn around before it lifted me up by the ankle, making me drop my gun. One of them had found me!

"Got you now" It smiled at me, and held me a little higher, where I was now seeing everything upside down. It raised the bladed wrist of its other arm, preparing to slash me...

And I skewered it with the dagger I had hidden in my jacket sleeve. Threw it straight into its throat, causing it to bleed profusely and start to fight for breath. It dropped me, and I turned the drop into a roll, then a back flip, landing on my feet and watching as the seven-foot creature dropped backwards like a stone, falling back on its own tail blade and kill itself. I thanked my crazy older cousin Nicolas for loving daggers so much, and retrieved it. I'd lost the gun, but I hadn't lost the ability to fight. I began to grow again, my skin beginning to...

And then I saw it. A fully grown male moose running full speed into the warehouse, with a cougar hot on its heels. It climbed the ramp, then went full tilt at the line of Hork-Bajir that had now almost completely cornered the other three, who were fighting desperately against the remaining Hork-Bajir. But they were loosing... and if I...

And then the moose ran full-tilt at them, barrelling into the madness, killing at least two more Hork-Bajir! But they were still...

Then Erik struck! He pounced, bit the neck of a stunned Hork-Bajir, then leapt away to go after another one! The moose threw its head, ramming down more of the enemy. And my friends, they were still fighting, but I knew Amanda and Robert had just about had it... and I knew it was time to get _really _big.

I packed on the pounds, my skin going grey and leathery. My ears exploded from the sides of my head, and my nose and upper lip melted together and began to stretch out... my legs became like tree trunks, and the little ropy tail of the elephant sprouted, just before my tusks exploded out of my mouth. Now, I was more than ready.

I trumpeted, thinking Rachel would have a cow if she knew I was using one of her favourite morphs, and charged straight in, finding it wasn't all that long a way to go. I tossed with my trunk and skewered with my tusks, finally finding the fight was turning around. Then Amanda fell. Just fell, like a puppet with her strings cut.

(Can't... no more... got my belly... bleeding...) she gasped out, trying to move. I covered her, fighting and stomping as well as an elephant possibly could.

And before I knew it, the remaining Hork-Bajir turned around and ran... just ran, like...

(More must be on the way! MOVE IT!!) Ithiell screamed.

(Amanda can't...)

(Then drag her out Jade. We need to MOVE!!)

I did as he instructed, finding the grizzly's weight slowed me down. But I didn't care; as long as I could get Amanda out... _alive_... everything would be ok. We barrelled out the door, with me giving Amanda to Robert when I realised I was too big to get through the door. I shrunk to tiger, then sped out after them, and into the stretch of woods. We all demorphed or shifted back to human, before running across the street and into another alleyway just before a cop car pulled up.

We took off towards my car, jumped in, and I gunned the engine and sped off, too scared and tired to care about the consequences.

And then, we met Karen.


	8. Keeping more secrets

_**Chapter by LilManiac**_

**Jade**

Karen. Tall, thin, and beautiful.

She made Amanda and I look like potato sacks.

Her hair was long and black, and her eyes were a mesmerising green with what looked like blue flecks in it. And when she smiled, it seemed like the whole room was lighting up.

I have to admit, I was more than a little jealous. I could tell Amanda was too.

A now human Ithiell and Erik sat with her in the lounge room, explaining our story to her as me, Robert and Amanda sat in the dining room, all looking worse for wear.

"Tell me Robert, why... _why_... do you _insist_ on getting yourself into trouble. _Why_??" I asked, glaring at him from across the table. He just stared right back, those icy blue eyes of his seeming to look directly into my soul.

"It wasn't on purpose. I was scoping out the place, and I didn't exactly expect fifty something Hork-Bajir to be hiding in the shadows"

"That place screamed 'trap' you idiot!" Amanda snapped slamming her clenched fists down on the table and making me and Robert jump.

"Hey, I went in there as a fly. I was taking proper precautions"

"Oh yeah? And how _didn't_ you notice all those Hork-Bajir in that warehouse, and how did you suddenly end up a bear _trapped _in there?!!" She accused, jumping up and knocking her chair over.

"If Amanda hadn't have come along, you would have been fish food. Well, either that or Visser One's new little pet" I added, then leaned in close and lowered my voice so that they had to strain their ears to hear me "And everything would have been over for us, _and_ the Animorphs"

"Oh, how cute. You're worried about your little boyfriend" He mocked, smiling cruelly at me.

"Not just him, _all _of them. Or is there something wrong with that?" I snapped.

"Yes. Yes there is"

"_What_ then, oh great and wonderful _Roberto_?"

"Don't call me that!"

"Then stop being such an ass and I will!" I yelled, finally getting up and storming up towards my room. I caught Ian giving me a funny look as I took the stairs two at a time, but I ignored it. I didn't care anymore. I just... didn't. And now...will this being one of the biggest missions yet, something that could win the war for the Yeerks, I was just disgusted with all my friends. Ian... Robert... even Amanda to some extent.

And then this Erik guy and his little 'girlfriend' Karen. I didn't think I could have felt worse than I did at that moment. I reached my door and slammed it behind me. Then I had a shower in my adjoining bathroom, letting the hot water wash away the feelings of pain from my thoughts. I touched my scar. The one on my side. It was short, about a five inches long, but it was deep enough for me to know I was scarred for life. I couldn't wear midriff tops or anything like that, otherwise it would show.

I'd gotten it in my first battle. Barely eleven years old, and I was terrified. I fell to my side, clutching a Jara gun, screaming in terror. And then the Terinan decided what humans might taste like. If it hadn't been for Ithiell saving me, that particular Terinan might have found out.

I'd noticed the scar Erik carried, and I guess I understood in a way what it was like. We all carried our own scars, in our own ways. He carried his where everyone could see it. In a way, I felt sorry for him.

I got out of the shower and dressed in a plain white t-shirt and some old bike shorts, laying down on my bed and closing my eyes for a while. Hours later, I was woken up by my little phone/watch going off on the nightstand beside me. Ithiell's handiwork. He even made it so it could take messages for me when I couldn't answer it. I decided to make that person, whoever they were, leave a message.

"Jade? Hey Jade, where are you? Oh never mind" I recognised that voice immediately, grabbing it and answering it.

"Hello? Jake? Is that you?"

"Jade? Yeah, it is. Listen, we need to talk. Can you meet me in the air above your house in about an hour?"

"Uhh... sure. No problem" I replied, going over and locking my door, suddenly finding it was almost dark.

"Don't worry, we won't be long"

"What? We?" But it was too late by then. He'd hung up. So... and hour later I was in the air, a barn owl, scanning the air for any sign of unusual birds in the air. A few minutes later I saw them. Two great horned owls, and a red-tailed hawk.

(This way) Jake instructed, and we all veered off towards the nearest stretch of woods, far away from the warehouse I had been in twice, fighting for my life, in less than a day.

We landed, and Jake and the other owl demorphed, while Tobias morphed his human self. I shifted back to human as well.

"Man, flying at night is no fun" He complained when he was fully human, and I realised the second owl was actually Marco. Of all people!

"Jade?" Jake asked, turning my attention back to him "Erek told us that there has been some definite activity in a warehouse not to far from here. Apparently a battle or two?" He raised an eyebrow, as if expecting me to answer.

"And I'd know about this...?" I asked, trying to sound innocent. But I couldn't fool these three. There was just no way. And besides, I'm not a very good at lying straight out.

"Because I know what Robert's like and I know he'd probably be the one to drag you into something as stupid as that" Marco replied.

"Well..." I hesitated "We were doing some surveillance, and Robert was seen. First battle... I don't know about the other one where he..."

"I knew it!" Marco suddenly yelled, making me jump. Jake clamped a hand over his mouth and hissed at Marco to shut up.

"So, what have you found out?" Tobias asked.

I quickly told them about the Visser being there, and about the plan and it being a cover operation for something bigger.

"So, what is this 'bigger' thing?" Jake asked, staring hard at me in the near-darkness.

"Well, it might be a virus they plan to infect you guys with... we don't know what it does yet. Timino are..."

"Timino! Not them again!" Tobias hissed angrily.

"Yes, them. We're going to find out what tomorrow night"

"We'll help you"

"Jake, no! If those guys get you like that, it's all over"

"I'm not taking no for an answer Jade, I..."

He was cut off as I pulled off a manoeuvre Rachel showed me once. I flipped forward, then landed square on Jake's chest, knocking him down and pinning his arms beneath my legs. I sat on his chest and stared down into his now angry eyes.

"What are you...?!"

"Jake, I'm telling you; NO. Okay? No. Ithiell will agree with me. We have a better chance of getting away with this if you don't come with us. In fact, let us take this one. We've been doing this little side kicks thing long enough"

"You... Jade I..." He was speechless.

"You know, you sound more and more like Rachel every day" Marco said from somewhere behind us. I ignored him.

"Look, we can _do _this _without_ you. Right now, if any of you get caught, it's over for _all_ of us. The free Hork-Bajir...the Chee... and my team-mates. Just _trust_ us. We can _do _this"

He just stared up at me with shock and hatred. Finally, he sighed and dropped his head back on the grass.

"All right. We'll trust you. Not can you get off me? It might look bad to the wrong people"

"Look's good to me" Marco laughed as I got up and helped Jake up off the ground. He stood up, brushing the grass off his back and hair and glaring at me.

"But if you need us... well... we'll be here" Jake finally said as we both ignored Marco's comment, and I noticed he was starting to morph again. Tobias was going back to his true form; his red-tail form.

They both took to the sky as Marco walked up to me. He looked more serious than he usually would. Then again, there _are_ sides to him that only I see. And I guessed this was the time when I'd see one of them.

"Jade, be careful. You might not be immune to this virus either" he said taking my hands in his. Above us, Tobias and Jake circled, then peeled off.

"I know. But its better us than you" I said, sounding less confident than I felt. He nodded anyway, smiling grimly.

(Don't be too long Marco. We need to get out of here ASAP) Jake's voice rung in our heads, and we both returned to reality.

"Have you... uh... you know. Checked that..." he asked in a breathless whisper. But I knew what he meant. And my heart was pounding as I replied.

"No. Not yet. Haven't had the time. Been too busy trying to save your butts" I tried to laugh, but it came out broken. Funny, a little thing like going to get a pregnancy test scared me even more than the Hork-Bajir soldiers at the warehouse. I was afraid of what it would say.

"That's ok. Well..." he hesitated, then pulled me in for a hug "See you in a few more months and... be careful... ok?"

"Sure" I replied hugging him back, knowing I wouldn't be holding him again for a long time. It almost broke my heart.

He kissed my forehead, then stepped away and morphed owl, flying off and telling me he loved me. I couldn't respond.

I flew back in my window and became human again, sitting on the edge of my bed.

I was a cruel, heartless bitch. I hadn't told the Animorphs about Glass Dagger of course, but I still felt bad about it all. I was going to risk the lives of people I hardly knew, to save the ones who had become like family to me. I hated myself more than I ever had at that moment, and I let loose a wordless scream, pulling at my hair.

Then I broke down. I put my head in my hands for the first time in years and just bawled. Soon, I felt an arm go around my shoulders, and I looked up, shocked, to find Amanda there.

"How did you...?"

"Jade, I'm a shape-shifter. I'm also your best friend" she said, smiling sadly at me.

"Amanda... I... Jake called me... wanted to know what was..."

"I know. And now it's like you're helping to keep two secrets from two very dedicated teams. I know" she said soothingly.

"Oh, it's like... they'll hate us if they ever..." I sat up, trying to control myself, but Amanda shook her head.

"Let go Jade. You've been there for me for nine years. Now let me be here for you, all right?"

Her words hit something buried deep within. So I did. I let myself cry, knowing that tomorrow would probably bring worse things. Too bad I was right.


	9. Preparing for battle

**Sorry this took so long gpshaw, I hope you'll forgive me…**

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

The first thing I noticed when we got back to Jade's house was how Robert couldn't stop himself from staring at Karen. One of the things I'll never understand, even if I live to be a hundred, is how Karen fell for me. I am not attractive, not in the least bit. I am almost comically skinny and my hair has a mind of its own. Not to mention that I have that eight inch scar on my face.

Ironically my scar is what made me and Karen fall in love. It was a year after we had been fighting the Yeerks. I was trying to plant a bug at an area where the sharing met. I had run into a Hork-Bajir, he slashed my face badly, and was going for my throat when Karen stabbed him from behind. She walked me out of the room (luckily there was a party going on so she made it look like I was drunk and she was leading me out)

She took me to her house that night and doctored my wound. She asked me on a date that night. I still think it was pity to this day, but after our first date we kissed on her doorstep, and- well- we had been inseparable ever since.

My scar was a reminder if how much I'd been through with her. It was at least eight inches long and from my right left eye to my neck. It was so deep that it looked like a stitched wound. Morphing didn't help it. Any changes made to your base form before morphing were permanent.

Karen had come looking for me even though I told her I was okay. When she saw me get into the car with Jade she followed us. When I went back out after my gunfight I saw her in her moose morph ready to charge in. She looked relieved to see me alive.

Karen was a tough woman she could take the pain of an inter-sex morph, no one else in our group could do that.

I pretty much sat back silently as Ian told his story, then I heard the other members of our hostesses group were fighting. Finally, Jade stormed up the stairs.

"Well, we're not going to get anything done tonight I see" Ian said gravely "I just need to ask you one thing Erik, how long would it take to get your other two members in?"

"I can have them here by breakfast tomorrow" I said "If you just let me call them" I walked over to the phone and cleared my throat "Privacy please"

Ian nodded and went out, with Karen following to make sure they didn't try to spy on me. I called Becky first and told her the location of the house. Then I called Fred, Fred was a black boy from an inner city slum. But he was smart, and was attending the same college as me on a full academic scholarship.

Fred was the one who got us non-weapon related items. Fake ID's, plane tickets, etc. He was also a strong kid. He could throw a full-grown man clear across the room. I called all of them back in.

"Tomorrow" I said "We're going to find out how to enter that lab, Ian I need blueprints of the entire building; leave nothing out. If we're gonna move around without morphs then we need a place to avoid security.

"Already have them" Ian said.

"Then let's get some sleep, is there another bedroom in here?"

"No Erik" Karen said "I'll go back to my apartment, they aren't suspicious of me" She walked out of the room and opened the door to the outside. I closed it behind us.

"No Karen I can't risk that" I said.

"Erik, I can take care of myself"

"I know that but I worry about you, I…" she leaned in and kissed me.

"I'll be fine" her kiss had clouded my mind a little. I loved her so, so much.

"Fine but I want you to pick up a pistol from Danny's dead drop you got it?"

"Yeah" she said then she gave me another peck on the lips "See ya tomorrow"

I walked back into the house. The first thing I checked was wether or not I still had bullets in my pistol. I ejected the magazine and saw that I had 18 left, that was six shots, that would do to protect myself. I walked upstairs and into the guest room. Before I laid down I put my pistol under my pillow. Even though I pretty much trusted this group of people I always preferred to be armed when I was among strangers.

For the first time that night I had time to think. I there was viral research going on at Timino then we were going to have a hell of a problem. Biological warfare was hard to combat against. We would need to find an antidote, assuming they even made one. Viruses could be genetically engineered to attack certain types of people, since morphing ability was DNA based, and shape-shifting seemed to be blood and ergo DNA based on some level. I would be a relatively easy task to make the virus only effect us.

Then again, Visser One was morph-capable, and he wouldn't be dumb enough to go without immunity to a virus that could affect him. The whole thing would likely end up depending on luck. Luck. In this business, everything eventually depended on luck, and no matter how good you are eventually your luck runs out.

_**----------------------------x--------------------------------------**_

When I woke up my heart was beating rapidly, I was hyperventilating, my body was soaked in sweat. I was filled with an unexplainable fear Where was I?! Then I took in my surroundings I was on a double bed, alone. There was an open window from which moonlight was streaming in. I could see a closet. A light switch, and a lamp next to me. I calmed down remembering where I was. It was my night terrors acting up again.

I hoped I didn't scream. Night terrors are basically nightmares that you can't remember so you wake up with a horrible feeling of dread. I didn't hear anyone stirring or telling me to keep quiet, so I guess I either didn't scream or was living in a house full of deep sleepers.

The terror had subsided a little but not much. The only way for me to subside my terror was to take a walk. I was still wearing the clothes I had worn the day I had met Jade and Robert. Karen had brought me a change of clothes after she was sure that Jade wasn't a blood thirsty kidnapper. I changed into a long sleeve shirt and long pants, and put on a jacket and went outside.

It was cold for September, very cold. I went outside and looked at the stars while I walked. It was always a humbling experience to see the stars. I thought of all those planets and suns trillions of miles away. I knew that up there somewhere was the Yeerk homeland, the hole from which these proverbial snakes had crawled out from.

It was funny, the planet was likely among the beautiful stars I saw right now, such beauty, such danger… you could never tell by looking what something was. I went back to the house and slept without interruption.

_**-------------------------------x---------------------------------**_

I woke up at the sound of something frying. I could hear muffled conversations downstairs. Sunlight was streaming in through the window. I walked downstairs and saw all of my new 'friends' sitting at the table eating. There were two people there that I didn't know. One was a blond-haired boy, and the other was a girl with red hair streaked blond. I noticed the boy was giving me a funny look.

"Well, I'm off" he said standing up suddenly "Hanna awaits, and so does work"

"You'd better clean up later" the girl said with a little frown "I'm not cleaning up your mess!"

"Same here" Jade agreed as he passed by me, giving me a slight wink before leaving.

Soon after, the girl left, and it was just the five of us.

"So, hey, nice of you to join us" Robert said.

"Yeah, nice of me to leave too. Can I use your shower again? I need it"

"Sure" Jade said smiling at me. I walked up the stairs and into the bathroom, starting the water. I got into the shower the hot water felt good, I needed it. I rooted around until I found the soap. After I finished bathing I stepped out and towelled off.

"Erik" I heard Amanda yell from downstairs "Your friends are here" I got dressed quickly and ran back downstairs.

_**--------------------------------------x---------------------------------**_

Well to be honest I wasn't pleased to see all of them enter at the same time. When your survival used to depend on stealth you learned ways not to draw attention to yourself and leaving in spaced out intervals was one of them. Even thought we didn't need stealth as much now old habits died hard.

We were in the living room, each of us sitting on the various couches and chairs. I sat down next to Karen as Ian started talking.

"Ok first Erik how about introducing your team-mates"

"Well" I said "You know Karen already. This is Becky" I gestured towards the short red-haired girl with freckles. Becky smiled her trademark grin that cheered anyone around up.

"Hi guys" She said, and even her voice dripped with pep "I'm the girl you need to see if you want any help with communications"

"And this" I said pointing to the muscular black boy "Is Fred"

"I'm the one who will rip you intestines out through your eyeball if you cause any trouble" Fred said, and I caught a strange smile from Robert. Amanda looked disgusted and a little afraid. Jade and Ian seemed indifferent.

I asked Ian if he had the blueprints. He put a small disk on the coffee table. He pressed a button and the disk glowed, suddenly a clear blue model of the Timino main building appeared. Ian had something else in his hand that looked like a small rubber ball. As he turned his hand the image turned.

"Ok now last night Erik asked for security details so here they are" he squeezed the ball and all the outside doors and windows started to flash red. Several air ducts did the same "Everything red is guarded in some way or another so they're out. These," Some air ducts flashed blue and some green "Aren't guarded, but blue means the vent doesn't go where we want it to, and as you can see only two green areas exist and both are on the eighth floor"

"Shit" Robert muttered "I guess that means we're not getting in there peacefully then"

"You aren't thinking of busting in there, are you Robert?" Jade asked almost sweetly "Because if you _are_, that can only mean you've com_pletely_ lost your mind"

"Enough!" Ian broke up what might have become a repeat of last night "Look, we still have one last chance" The image moved to the far side and a blue line appeared under it. The line extended about a foot "There is a sewer pipe that runs into the buildings water supply. It comes out in a manhole cover in the water treatment area, so we'll be in but we'll need to sneak around. Now, the building is on an energy conservation thing so they'll be little lighting. If we go in black clothing it should be relatively easy to sneak into the board room…"

"Wait a minute here" I said "Are we going in with all these people and no stealth morphs?"

"No" Ian replied "Look, you're not the only one who knows things about stealth. I only want you to go in. The rest of us will wait for you and get ready to charge in if things go bad"

"What about an exit plan?" Fred said.

"Exit plan?"

"How are we going to get out?"

"Depends?"

"On what?"

"How fast can you run?"

_**------------------------------------x-----------------------------**_

After the meeting Jade and Amanda left the house to go get pizza, Ian left to consult with the other Chanaibens, and Robert went back to his house to rest. Me and my team had the house to ourselves. We spent most of the time discussing the plans for our mission.

"Ok, now since it's only gonna be three of us we can't afford to make any mistakes. Fred I want you to talk with Robert, he seems like a guy we can get to run in and create a diversion, if we need one I want to have Robert come in and pull guards off long enough for us to get into a vent or something."

"You're saying you want me to turn Robert into a suicide bomber of sorts?" Fred asked.

"Not the words I would have chosen but yeah, we need information if it costs us a life then so be it. If we don't get the information about the virus then we'll all die. Other than that, I don't think there's anything much else to say. We meet again at 8pm until then go do what you want"

_**------------------------------------x-------------------------**_

_12.34pm_

Jade and Amanda came back with a large amount of pizza. I went into the backyard to eat alone, I needed to brood over the mission and get a good strategy ready. I sat down and ate. I felt bad about my decision on Robert, I knew that if it came to that Robert would likely die. Even though I tried to rationalize my decision I couldn't. One thing I always thought was that a man wasn't made to decide whether another human being lived or died. In the time I knew Robert I had gained respect for him. He was a good warrior, and remember his sacrifice. If it came to that.

"Hey lonely boy" Karen's voice rang out. She sat beside me with her plate of pizza. She held out a slice. "Eat" She said. I took a bite. She smiled "Hey I'm not going to feed you!" I took the slice and ate it quickly.

"Before you change your mind" I said.

"What does that mean?"

"I mean you eat anything that comes on your plate"

"I do not!"

"Yeah you do, you're always hungry"

"Hey look who's talking" We laughed and hugged.

"Kare" I said "I'm scared"

"Of what?"

"This virus. What if… we can't do anything about it? I mean, this is a huge danger to us, it could finally be what finally kills us. I mean we've been on borrowed time for a long time"

"Erik, we're alive because of your leadership, you're the reason we survived so long. You are" she kissed my forehead "the smartest" she kissed me again "strongest" again "wisest leader around, and as long as you're here no one will die"

"I hope you're right" I said and kissed her deeply "I just hope to god you're right" I spent a few hours just sitting there hand in hand with her. The cold was not an issue for me, just being close to her warmed my body…

When I got back in I found Robert was back, and Fred was talking to him. The mission had begun.


	10. Finding out

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

_9.22pm_

The sewer entrance wasn't hard to find. It was hidden behind a bush.

We each climbed down the ladder and into the sewer. When we were all down Becky handed Ian a small microphone that could fit on the lips and a small hearing piece for the ear. She gave one other to Jade and another to me.

"Let's do a test" Becky said "Erik say something"

"I hope to god that things don't get ugly because I don't think you'll make it in time" Becky giggled.

"Did you hear that in your earpiece Ian?"

"Yeah" Ian said "I heard it"

"Before you ask, I heard Ian" I said.

"Okay here's how it works" Becky said "Tap your lip to turn the mike on and off. When it's on anything you say can be heard by the guy with the earpiece so keep that in mind. That's all I have, let's go" Most of the group walked ahead but I pulled Robert aside. I reached into the knapsack I was wearing and pulled out a belt of grenades and a burst pistol.

"Wear it where no one can see it" I said "And don't hesitate to use it" he nodded in agreement and we walked on. When we arrived at a correct ladder I stripped down to a black jumpsuit. I climbed up the ladder and entered the water room.

It was dark. Only one dim light lit the area. I heard my earpiece crackle to life.

"Ok Erik you need to walk to the end of the hall you come out in. Then take a left and go into the fourth door on your right. That's the board room. Get in there fast and find a place to hide"

"Roger" I said. I thought back to my stealth training. Speed means noise, you don't want to noise so move slow. Never enter the light and hide any bodies that appear. I had a stun gun, enough to knock out a guard who got too close, but I doubted I'd be seeing bodies. I exited the room.

I got into the board room without incident, a streak of luck that I knew I would have to pay for later. I pulled down an air-conditioning vent. It's weird, all of the movies and still the board room's vent isn't guarded. I climbed into the vent and placed it back in place.

I waited about half an hour before three people began to file in. Visser One in his human morph sat at the table head. There was one man in a lab coat and another man in a suit and tie. The man must have been a member of the Council of Thirteen, Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Yeerk world.

"Visser One, Sub-Visser 33, the council tires of waiting. What is the status of the virus?"

"We have already engineered it to only infect people with the enzyme Zycophan-09 in their blood" The man in the lab coat said "Zycophan-09 is of course the enzyme that allows DNA absorption, it is also an enzyme that allows a DNA shift to occur. We have also engineered it to attack systems with the enzymes Heroflobian-12 which is present in the blood of Chanaibens. After all, you can never be too careful. The virus begins to take affect only minutes after infection"

"Extreme fatigue and drowsiness are the early symptoms, followed by sneezing and coughing which get progressively worse. Then the big ones come, the skin breaks at the slightest touch, muscles twitch uncontrollably and morphing becomes difficult to control. In its final stages the bodies organs break down and the victim goes into a coma and dies"

"And does this virus follow from morph to morph or can they just morph and be cured?" The council member asked.

"The virus is DNA based so it would follow from morph to morph"

The council member smiled.

"Excellent, excellent!" Visser One interrupted.

"Have you created the antivirus?"

"Yes, it is being stored in the research lab you will be treated with it as soon as we can confirm that it works, once you've been treated it will be released"

"Well I've seen enough" The council member said "I will return to the council with a favourable report" He left. A few minutes later the scientist spoke.

"I think we fooled him" he said. The Visser threw the man against the wall.

"I hope so for your sake. I was just made to lie to a member of the council in order to cover your ass, my cousin" The scientist was getting to his feet.

"I…I'm sorry

"Sorry? You spend five million dollars on research, _fail_ to create a virus and…"

"Visser, we haven't failed. We just need more time, a month maybe two, we will have this virus ready it's just that we've hit a few stumps…"

"_Stumps? _I'll show you stumps when I cut off your arms. Now, take me to the computer room. I want to see what progress you've made, _then_ I will decide if I give you more time or if I tell the council you lied to me" They left the room turning out the lights as they left. I knocked the vent out and told Ian what I had heard.

"Follow them" he said. So I did. I kept at least ten feet behind them walking in the shadows. The computer room was on the same floor according to the blueprint. It wasn't long before the party of two came to a door. The Visser entered a code and stepped in.

I snuck in behind them. The room was dark, more luck, the computer room had only one computer. It was huge, it had lots of complicated data on it. There were four other scientists looking at it and murmuring to each other. I hid in a dark corner.

"This is what we have so far Visser" The scientist said "We can infect the victim but it will not follow from morph to morph, it will not bond to the DNA"

"The progress you've made is impressive" The Visser said "But it is good enough, what's the problem?"

"We don't know, if we could have more money and…"

"I will give you no more money"

"But Visser, the equipment we have isn't…"

"Are you telling me that you're only stumped because of an equipment problem?"

"Yes Visser, that's what I'm saying"

"Then pack everything up. I want you to move to the underwater lab"

"The one at George's banks?"

"Yes"

"Why?"

"Do not question my orders! I am giving you a second chance that is not a common deal when you have me as a master! I want you and your team and all the data in Gloucester next week, is that understood?!"

"Yes Visser"

"When you arrive at the lab you will be given four months to complete the virus. I will give you all the equipment you need, but after four months I will feed you to the swordfish, is that understood?"

"Yes, Visser"

"Then get to packing" The Visser left. After a while I tried to sneak out too, but something terrible happened; I sneezed. The scientists attention snapped to me.

"Who are you?" He asked. I hit him with the stun gun and ran. I heard alarms going off, I ducked into a nearby bathroom.

"Guys, I could use a little help here" I said.

"We're on our way" I heard Ian reply. I closed my eyes and grew. Spots appeared on my skin (I felt them, I didn't see them) they turned to fur. I grew fangs, paws and claws. Soon I was a leopard. I nosed open the door, right into a group of Hork-Bajir.

"Andalite!" One of them yelled and swiped at me. I ducked it and disembowelled him, then I ran hoping that I would meet up with the others before I met up with more Hork-Bajir.


	11. Cutting it close

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Robert**

My name is Robert Liam Kessely. I am part of a team which I have named the Black Angels. We are a side force in the Yeerk war. Pawns, if you must. We're only of use to the Animorphs when we can get information. Or save their butts.

It seemed to me, that Glass Dagger thought the same thing about us. Dispensable little pawns. Well, at least, they thought I'd be. I'd caught onto Erik's little 'plan'. Although I admired that he'd trust me so much to give me a gun and grenades, I still saw what he wanted. He wanted me to die. Well, I had news for him. Robert Kessely doesn't die while the Yeerks are still on earth. In fact, neither does any of the Black Angels team.

Black Angels, you ask? Because although it might appear we're doing good, we're still killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people. Sure, we can justify it by saying they've got Yeerks in their heads, but… nothing takes that fact away. Kill. Death. Kill. Death. An endless cycle.

I know what you're thinking. _Robert_ _has a heart? Robert hates killing and maiming?_ _Oh there's front page news_. Well guess what folks, I'm not a blood-thirsty murderer. Although my motivation is no where near justified. What's my motivation you ask? Well, plain and clear for you; every time I kill, I think I'm killing my father.

Yeah, my father. Got a problem with that? Go see a bloody shrink. That bastard did more harm to me and my mother than you could ever imagine. And no, I don't want your pity, I'm just telling it straight. As I always do.

Although, there are some times when I know to just shut the fuck up.

I'd noticed how amazingly beautiful Karen and Becky were, and seemed to momentarily shadow the strength and beauty of Jade and Amanda. But I knew, deep inside, that it's never what's on the outside that counts. After all, look at my father; he is almost normal to everyone else. Good thing I don't look like him. No, I'm not a 'mammas boy' I just get along- and I trust- her more than my father.

I almost laughed when I realised Becky was at least two inches shorter than Jade. It was funny to see, after all Jade was always complaining how short she was. Amanda was only a little taller than Jade. But Karen… she was tall, beautiful… and graceful in the way she talked… and moved. It took my breath away. At least, the first time.

Now, in a hot and stuffy sewer tunnel, it didn't seem so important. I looked over at her again, and caught Fred's eyes watching me. I looked away, a little frustrated. He was a few inches taller than me, and he was really beginning to get on my nerves. He might have been well-built, but I knew if it came down to it, I could probably get him down in three moves, five if he had a good reaction time. Nine years, plus those years with my father, had prepared me for any kind of 'normal' fight.

When we heard from Erik next, we found out what we'd wanted to know. The virus could infect Chanaibens as well. And, with Ithiell's blood in Jade, Amanda and me, that meant we could be infected as well. But what confused me was that they still believed that there were Andalite rouges were around, yet… why take that extra precaution to make it infect us? Every time we were spotted it was 'Andalite!' not 'Chanaiben!' they yelled. Then again, maybe they were just too used to fighting one that they hardly thought it could be the other.

"So, we're doomed as well I hear" I said to Ian, who looked up at me in the near-darkness.

"Hmm, seems that way" he muttered. Karen was beside him, near the ladder, waiting anxiously for news from Erik. Amanda, Jade and Becky were standing a little off to the side with Fred. I, of course, was further off from them.

"What do we do now?" Jade asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Well, _now_… we wait. But we might need to…" Before Ian could finish, Erik decided now was the time to tell us the bad news. He needed help. Which meant he'd been spotted. And I wondered if he'd done it on purpose or not. Karen, Becky and Fred stripped to the black jumpsuits they wore. The Black Angels didn't need to. Years of focus had taught us to blend our clothes, and anything else we needed, into our shape-shifting.

Above us, alarms sounded. Red lights began to flash through the small manhole, and I knew this was the time we fought.

"Come on!" Ian yelled, grabbing the ladder and shooting up it. Karen wasn't far behind. Jade and the others followed. Then me. A few humans came at us through the door, but I shot them before they had a chance to do any real damage. I caught Ian looking at me, but of course at that time he was beginning to shift to his Chanaiben self. The others were either morphing or shape-shifting. Jaguar, cheetah and Timber wolf emerged from Karen, Fred and Becky. Jade was going for her favourite form; the white Bengal tigress she always used. Amanda went grizzly.

"Well?" Ithiell asked me. I knew he was now up to something. Too bad I saw he knew the same about me as well.

"I've got some… ammunition"

He glared at me, then turned back to the others.

"Let's go!" He flew above the wild creatures as we all barrelled out the door, with me taking up the rear. We ran into three more humans, and a Hork-Bajir by himself, but by the time we were done with them, they were no more than smears on the floor and walls. It was cruel, but it was necessary.

Soon, we came upon more than just a few. There were at least twenty, all following a leopard which I guessed was Erik. He joined us, and when he did, I threw a grenade. The others stopped and watched as the big group exploded into nothingness. Well…

(Oh eeeeeeeeeewwww!) Amanda cried as a Hork-Bajir arm landed on her head. She shook it off, looking as disgusted as any bear can look.

(Come on, lets…) before Erik could finish, there was a shout, and then a red beam of light came within inches of my ear. We turned around to find the way we had come from was now blocked by humans and Hork-Bajir alike, all with weapons, and all shooting at us. I fired off a few rounds, and the others began to charge… but it wasn't looking good.

(Ahh!) Amanda cried as a blast incinerated her entire left paw, only leaving a bloody stump. Dammit. She was the only one with any muscle.

"Ok, change of plans! Erik, lead me to the computer room! Amanda, shift to polar bear. Robert, you're with me" Ithiell said as he landed beside me "And everyone else, hold them off for as long as you can. If you can't go any more, then pull back to the computer room, all right? Jade will lead you there"

(Hey! I'm…)

"Erik for fuck's sake just _trust_ him!" I yelled, firing off my last round, and knowing that I couldn't throw any more grenades without hitting my friends.

(I… all right) he finally gave in, shooting past us. Ithiell flew behind him, and I ran. Another shot nearly burnt my arm off, but I kept running. We were met by a few more Hork-Bajir, but I used a grenade to turn them into Hork-Bajir pieces.

Finally, Erik led us to a door.

(It needs a code to…) Erik didn't finish, because Ithiell was already working at the keyboard. I noticed he'd become Ian again, and was fishing through his pocket for something. Finally, he pulled out a small, flat, white rectangle, placing it against the keyboard. In seconds, the door opened.

"Code descrambler" Ian explained, quickly reverting back to Chanaiben. There were four scientists in the room, and another sprawled on the floor. Erik took out one, and the others seemed to be scrambling for something. Ithiell took out two, ripping with his effective clawed hands. I broke the neck of the last one. Ithiell quickly shut the door, then turned back to the giant computer screen. I followed his gaze. On the screen were complicated equations and other data I couldn't really read.

Ithiell however, seemed to know a little more.

"How the… this is remarkable! But… it could…"

BAM!!

Something heavy hit the door outside.

"_Gessah!_ You all needed! Fight in halls!" Came the Hork-Bajir voice.

"Just a moment" I replied, trying to sound like a scientist.

(Ian, whatever it is you wanted to do, you'd better do it quick!) Erik said, positioning himself in front of the door.

"Right" human again, he pulled something that looked like a computer disk out of his pocket. Then back to Chanaiben. He slipped the disk into a computer drive, then his fingers began to race across the board.

"_Cahath!_ Why you not out here! You needed!"

"_Tihaa mivop_" Ithiell muttered under his breath, then in a loud authoritive voice he yelled "We will be out in a moment!"

But I think by then the Hork-Bajir was putting two and two together.

"Ithiell" I hissed.

"But… I'm not…"

"Then get…"

BAM!! BAM!!

(Uh-oh. Guys!)

"All right. That'll do for now" Ithiell finally said a little grudgingly. He became human again and slipped the disk back into his jacket pocket, before finally shape-shifting into something that could fight. Wolf.

I however, went into my panther form. After all, I knew we needed to be quick and effective, and although polar bears were great for a good rumble, they still lacked speed. A panther, however….

My knees reversed direction as the short black fur grew from every inch of my body. A tail sprouted as my ears, nose and mouth shifted to that of the black panther. My eyes, no doubt, turned to the golden eyes of the cat I was doing. Soon, Ithiell and I were ready.

TSSSSSEWWWW!!!

TSSSSSSSSSEEWWWWW!!! Dracon fire began to burn the door. I felt the heat and smelled it through my panther nose.

(Stand back guys! We need to get them as soon as they…)

(We know that!) I snapped at Erik. He growled at me, but other than that he said nothing. We backed up, all of us hiding deep in the shadows. I could blend in much better than the other two in the darkness. Which I enjoyed. Soon, the door was no more than burnt rubble on the ground, and four Hork-Bajir stepped in through the door. They saw the damage we'd done, and…tick… tick… tick….

"Andalite!" one of them screamed. The others muttered an agreement, all of them pointing Dracon beams this way and that. But nothing could prepare them for me. I slunk towards the unsuspecting group, and I could only guess what they saw when they looked in my direction. Golden eyes, then…

I pounced and took out one, darting back into the shadows before the other three could react.

"Demon!" Another shouted as they shot in the direction I had gone. But I wasn't there anymore, and now… it was three on three.

Erik pounced, then Ithiell, and finally I took out the last one, separating its head from its shoulders. Now we were clear to get out the door. We bolted, running in the direction from where we were hearing screams and animal cries. We were about five feet from the corner when a Hork-Bajir fell, with a tigress on top of it. Then I guess she saw us.

(Guys! It's not going good! We _have_ to find a way out of here) she screamed as the battle began to move into the corner. I saw a bloodied polar bear hit the corner wall, and a Hork-Bajir came after it, but Jade pounced, and it was now a bloodied mess on the floor.

(What about the way we came in?!)

(Blocked!) Panted a very tired sounding Karen (too many controllers! We have to find another way out!) We joined the madness, helping to dwindle their numbers. I shifted to polar bear, putting brute force into the fight.

(Well, we wouldn't have _had_ this problem if Ian hadn't decided to take a tour around here!) Fred yelled, even as he swiped at the face of a Hork-Bajir, leaving bloody red gashes across its face. It fell back, and another took its place.

(Hey! Whatever Ithiell…. Ian… does is for a reason!) Amanda yelled, roaring as she and I fought side-by-side. Soon, we were only facing a few human-controllers, most of which were now running for their lives.

(Yes!) Becky cried in triumph (Now let's…)

(Let's not. That'll be the place were they'll be centring their forces now. We'll find another way. Come on!) Ithiell said, running back in the direction we came from.

(Hey! Why should we…)

(Because he knows what he's talking about! Now move it!) I shoved the cheetah, and he snarled at me, but I knew he couldn't take me on alone. I pushed him again, before he gave in and ran after Ithiell, with the rest of us taking up the rear.

We ran, following the lone wolf, all of us cut and bloody. Soon, we reached a window in the place. The only few there were. Amanda and I smashed through it, not caring about the alarms now. They already knew we were there, so it didn't matter.

Then we shape-shifted or morphed birds of the night, flying out the window and into the cover of darkness. Little did I know what kind of fight there was to come.


	12. A Black Angel's cry

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Robert**

_12.12am_

Ithiell and I managed to get into the sewer drain one last time before they found that's where we'd come from. We managed to destroy the girls clothing, and grab whatever else we thought they could identify us with. We didn't destroy Fred or Erik's clothing for a reason; after all, they were looking for Andalites, and all Andalites they ran across could only be male. So, we made sure they drew their own conclusions about us. We got out of there just before they found us. Then, we headed back to Ian's house. We landed inside, with Amanda shifting back to human first and checking each room carefully before she gave us the all clear, and the rest of us demorphed or shifted back.

We went downstairs, and I could see Fred looked furious with a now human Ian. Ian however, just seemed to ignore it. But when we got into the lounge room, none of us expected what happened next.

"You jerk!" Amanda snapped, going up to Erik and giving him a nasty slap on the cheek. He fell back a little, shocked.

"Amanda?" Jade looked worried. I saw Karen start to move towards them, but Jade stopped her gently. Amanda looked way beyond furious.

"He… I know what he did! Robert… that gun! I know what you… you… you asshole!" She reached to slap him again, but Fred grabbed her arm.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing you little prissy…"

"Let go of her"

"What?!" He turned to me.

"I said let go of her"

"And why would I…"

"She couldn't do him serious harm. She doesn't kill people in cold blood" I said calmly as I went over and unlatched his hand from around her wrist. She started to cry, and Jade grabbed her gently and guided her away. I backed off as well.

"Kill me! Come on, kill me!" She screamed back at him. Jade managed to get her to the stairs and pulled her up it.

"I don't think anyone's killing anybody right now" Ian said, his mouth set in a grim line, his eyes now on Erik. Karen had gone over to check if he was all right or not, and his actions assured her he was fine. I wasn't. Amanda had seen it before Ian did. Not even Jade had thought of it. And Jade sees what no one else seems to.

"I want to die! I want to _die_!!" Amanda screamed from upstairs. I heard Jade trying to calm her down, but it didn't seem to be helping.

"She… oh my god…" Becky looked shocked. Her gaze met my own, and I turned away from her, a little flushed.

"She's already lost her mother. She doesn't want to loose anyone else" Ian explained, looking at the stairs and biting his lip, before turning his attention back to Erik.

"Oh poor baby" Becky said softly.

"Maybe… you girls could help her" I suggested, looking at Karen, then Becky.

"And leave you to beat up Erik? No way" Karen shook her head.

"I'll go" Becky said, turning around and taking the stairs two at a time. I turned back to the others. Ian was staring at Erik again. Erik only now had caught Ian's expression.

"You decided one of my team was expendable, did you not?" Ian said, sounding almost like his old self.

"I… we needed…" Erik seemed at a loss what to say.

"Well, I've got news for you. The Black Angels are _not_ expendable, is that clear?"

"Black _what_??" Fred seemed annoyed. No, make that pissed.

"The name of our team. Black Angels" I explained, although I was really beginning to dislike his attitude towards us. He made us feel like we were something stuck to his shoe. And I did _not_ like being thought of as crud on someone's shoe.

"Look, we needed the information, and if one of us…"

"That's not the point!!" Ian roared, cutting Karen off. Ian never yells, but this time… he looked like he could kill.

"The _point_ is that you thought since we weren't part of your group, you could just use us and throw us away! We'll I've got news for you, we're _not._ And we've survived nine fucking years. All four of us. And do you want to know why?" Ian sneered, daring them to talk. None of them did.

"Because we watched each others backs. We treated one another like family. We believe all life is precious, unlike your snivelling little bunch! I was ready to defend and protect you. But now… _now_…" Ian was clenching his teeth, and I saw his hands were balled into fists. He was glaring at each one of them in turn.

"I think he means that if you treat us like fucking shit, you can just get the fuck out of here and go your own way. _We'll_ deal with this" I said, going to stand beside him, putting a hand on his arm that he couldn't shake off. If he didn't calm down now, neither would I, and we'd both be in a fight neither side could win.

"Are you _threatening _us?? _Are_ you??" Fred challenged, ready to step forward and tear me a new one.

"No, they're right Fred. We used them" Erik looked up at Ian, sadly almost. Then he looked at me.

"Look, I'm sorry for… you know, but in a war-"

"You do what it takes to win. Yeah, we know" I replied. I turned to look at Ian. He seemed to be calming down, but I could tell… his eyes had a murderous look in them. Very rare for Ian, of all people. He was taught focus and calmness. He never even got mad at Jake when he took command of us the first time we all met. He respected Jake, and he knew that the Yeerk war was the Animorphs war. But this… he looked deadly. And I could feel through the shirt under my hand, that he was extremely tense.

"I didn't mean to… we fight differently… I'm so sorry" Erik apologised, looking at Ian. After a few minutes I felt him relax a little, and his face became less murderous. He looked down, sighed, then looked up at Erik again as he pulled my hand off. I let it slide.

"It's… it's ok. It's just… we watch out for one another. And we need to trust each other from now on. No more secrets, ok? For either side" Ian held out a hand to Erik, and he in turn stepped forward and took Ian's hand.

"I'll trust you from now on. You seem to know a lot of ways to keep everyone alive"

Ian nodded, smiling "You've got quite a few interesting skills yourself. Now, I say we split up and meet again in the morning. I think we can work from there on"

"And we all need some sleep" I added, rubbing my temple, looking at each face from the Glass Dagger team. With the exception of Becky.

"Robert's right. For once" Jade suddenly appeared on the stairs, smiling a little at me.

"You want to start something?" I asked, smiling back. I didn't know why, but for tonight, she and I seemed to be… friendly. On the same side. I didn't mind it either.

"Oh no, not at all"

"All right you two, let's just get some sleep. I think by the morning we'll all have our heads straight" Ian said.

"I agree" Erik sighed, nodding. And so, we all went our separate ways, with me going back to my dorm room, unable to sleep for a long time.

_**--------------------------------------------x----------------------**_

_7.33am_

I woke up in a cold sweat. For a second I thought I was still trapped in a dream, but seeing the soft light of the desk lamp on, and the figure sitting there, I knew where I was.

"Oh, hey. Didn't know you'd be back so soon" I said in my sleep-clogged voice struggling to sit up. Peter turned in his chair to look at me. Peter and I shared a dorm room, but I thought he'd gone home for the holidays. I guess I'd been wrong.

"Oh. My parents decided last night was the night they'd start… uh… so I decided to come back here for a little. What about you?"

My anger flared for a moment as I remembered my father and mother.

"My parents are in Australia. They're divorced" I replied, getting up and out of bed. I brushed the wild tangles of black hair away from my face, considering getting a hair cut. My black curls could not be tamed, not even with hair products I'd borrowed from Marco once. And I emphasise, _once_.

"Oh, lucky you" he returned back to his work. That was Pete for you. He worked his ass into the ground to get into this college. And he was one of those guys that really got into it too. Strange guy, but trustworthy.

I looked at my alarm clock beside my bed. It read seven thirty.

"Oh man, I've been out a while" I moved around the room, finding some clean jeans and a top to wear, then a towel so I could go shower before I left.

"Uh…" he hadn't stopped looking at me.

"What?"

"You… what does 'madhouse' mean?"

"Madhouse??" I echoed.

"You were having a dream… or a nightmare or something. You shouted '_madhouse!_' a couple of times"

"Oh. Bad dream I guess. I don't know" I honestly said, before I went and had a shower, changing into my clean clothes before I left the dorm. I went to where I'd parked my motorcycle, shoving my helmet on my head before getting on and revving it a few times. The engine sounded good, and I positioned my weight on the bike, ready, and sped off to the house.

_**----------------------------------------x-------------------------**_

_8.34am_

When I got there, I noticed no one from the Glass Dagger team, besides Erik, was there yet.

"Erik's asleep" Jade explained as she led me in, then joined Amanda on the floor near the coffee table. There was what looked like a roadmap splayed across it, and Ian's laptop sat on the edge, where Ian himself was tapping the keys furiously.

"Why the heck are you on the floor?" I asked rolling my eyes but joining them.

"Easier to see it. And it feels better when I can move without having to get off a nice comfy chair" Amanda smiled at me. I noticed she seemed ok. But I was careful not to ask her about it. Only heaven knew what made her loose it the night before.

Amanda was not the one to give up to that extent. I knew, because she was the only one that knew the truth about me… and I knew her secrets too. At least, the ones she was willing to tell me. One thing she said was she would never give up as long as her father and brothers were in danger. Or us. But… maybe… it was just her time to snap.

"Okay, so… what are we looking at?" I asked, trailing my hands over the map, then over an area that I knew, trailing my index finger over it and seeing which way it connected to the next highway.

"We're finding where this Georges Banks is. We think it might be near where that old abandoned cottage motel used to be. You know, the one by the lake? But since the motel wasn't on any maps, we can't be sure" Jade explained.

"We're trying to remember which roads use to lead up to it. You know, when-"

"Yes, I remember that adventure. How could I forget?" I rolled my eyes. Amanda laughed at me.

"Yeah, well, we were wondering if maybe you could help us. If we could find that motel, we might just have a place to hide while we pull this off"

"And what…. in _gods_ name… is Ian doing to help you?"

"I'm taking a look at a fragment of the data I was able to pull off the main computer drive. For the most part, I can't understand how they could have gotten this far, Yeerks or not. Chanaibens have studied our DNA structure for centuries trying to find out why we can do what we do. We're only partly sure of it, but this… to be able to latch onto the DNA strands like this…"

"I think it's there!" Amanda suddenly exclaimed, pointing to an area of what seemed like a dense forest.

"Mand, I think that's a nature preserve. I doubt we've been there. And look at the roads? Don't you remember? One went off to the right, and the other two intersected and…"

"Well at least it was a good try!" Amanda pouted, and Jade laughed.

"Yeah, it was. I think we're close though" She hugged her, and I couldn't help but smile.

"Girls, please. No fighting over me" Ian said, smiling over the computer screen, and the three of us laughed at him. For now, it felt good. Just the four of us. Ian soon gave up the data file and helped us look at the map. Finally, we were able to find what we were looking for. Amanda had been closer than we'd thought.

"Uh, do we have any transportation there?" I asked, knowing Ian still had something else in mind.

"Well, we can't risk taking Jade's car, _or _your bike, even though I know you treasure it like a baby" he smirked at me, and I punched him on the shoulder. After all, he was right. I did love my bike. Although, it was the only kind of 'baby' I know I'd ever have. After all, I'd sworn to myself I'd never put a child through what I'd been through. No child was going to have my bad blood. Never.

"So what then?" I asked.

"Well… I was thinking…" he said, then started humming a song we all knew.

"Not da _bus_!" Jade cried hysterically, covering her face with her hands, falling back on the floor, finally laughing in spite of herself. We laughed too.

"Yes _da bus_ Jade. Da bus is a good choice, unless it's _several_…" Amanda cocked an eyebrow at Ian.

"No no no, coach all the way. I'd never have it any other way" Ian said, pulling her in for a quick kiss. I felt a little wierded out, but I just tried to ignore it.

"What about… the Glass Dagger team?" I asked, knowing the minute they were out of my mouth the words were wrong somehow.

"Well… we need everyone we can get" Ian turned serious now, his arm still around Amanda "And we need to show them we trust them as well-"

"And if we don't?"

"Look, we have to trust them Robert. They might not know about…about that secret-"

"Which we will never tell them"

"Right. But if we can show them two very different teams can work together, we might just make it through this all right"

"And if they decide we're expendable?"

"They won't. If they do… well, it's their loss then"

I heard the hesitation in Ian's voice, and I knew he meant to say something else. But he was right; we needed to trust them. And they needed to trust us. It all came down to that.

"Wait a sec, if they're moving down to this underwater thing, doesn't that mean…"

"It means we have to be there beforehand. Most likely, to stop an underwater ship from going down there, or a…"

"It means we'll need to stop try and stop them from going down there if we can" A new voice said. A familiar voice. We all turned to the stairway, where Erik stood. How much had he heard? We couldn't be sure. Whatever he heard, I knew it didn't incriminate us in any way. Hopefully.

Ian nodded at him. The fire from last night had vanished from his eyes, and now it was a deep understanding.

"You're right of course. We'll leave on Friday evening, since I need to get to work in about half an hour anyway. After all, we don't want anyone to get suspicious" Ian replied, giving Amanda a quick (and nauseating) kiss on the lips, before heading upstairs.

"He's right. We've got work. I don't know about you Robert…" Jade trailed off.

"No, I'm cool" I said, smiling. Two days before we left… what was I going to kill before then?

"All right. We'll probably discuss it later anyway" Jade said before she got up too. I looked at Erik. He seemed suspicious. Trust. That was the key. Trust.

Too bad that didn't seem to be working too well recently.


	13. Getting there

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

The rest of my team arrived a few minutes later. Ian came back downstairs and we began yet another meeting.

"Ok now Georges Banks is here" he pointed to the map "It's about three days ride from Massachusetts's shore, since they said they'd be leaving from Gloucester we'll be pressed for time since we'll be staying about thirty miles from…"

"Can I interrupt?" Fred said.

"You just did!" Robert exclaimed.

"Go ahead Fred" Ian said.

"We don't have to stay outside of the city. My uncle is a bartender at the Crow's Nest, he could get us rates on some of the rooms they have up there"

"Ah, some good luck!" Ian said "In that case we won't be in such a rush. I think we'll get there on Saturday if we're lucky, or Sunday at the latest then we can look around for the ship that might take the scientist to the site, assuming they're not taking a bug fighter or something"

"I doubt that" I said "Georges Banks is heavily fished especially this time of year. An alien spacecraft would be noticed so he's likely to be going on a sword fishing boat. The first boat we find that has a research team coming along will be the one we need to watch"

"So once we get there," Ian began "Our first priority will be to find out about the ships. Now Fred, do you think your uncle could help us there?"

"Yeah I know he could" Fred chuckled "Hell he was a captain until he lost his arm in a storm. Best of all he hates scientists so that's likely the first thing he'll tell me I can hear him now 'fucking liberals have a bunch of scientists on one of those boats, God only knows how they'll fuck up the fishing industry, I'm betting mercury…" Everyone laughed a little. Ian continued.

"Once we find the ship we'll need to find a way to get on board and attack while they're loading up to go, if we can break this off before it starts we'll be good, but in case we don't we need to be ready to escape. So I want us to try and attack before the boat casts off. That's about as far we can plan ahead. We won't know any more until we get there, so the next two days are yours, so whatever you need to get go ahead and get it together. Fred go ahead and call your uncle get us some rooms booked"

Fred picked up the phone and dialled a number. We only heard part of his conversation but he gave us a thumbs up signal. He hung up.

"I got double good news for you!" He said "One he'll give all of us a room apiece for four months for about 800 dollars total. Erik can cover that can't you?"

"Sure" I said "I still have a lot of money left over form my parents life insurance even more from the trust fund. But you said you had double good news what's the other one?"

"My uncle said that there was a ship set to sail next Wednesday that had 'a bunch of fucking environmentalist scumbags on it' who were 'trying to determine this main cities income' by 'finding something wrong with the way people fish' and according to him they have armed guards guarding the boat, which means…"

"There's a good chance that's our boat" Amanda finished. I was still having a hard time looking at her in the eyes. I don't like being slapped, or attacked in any way had Amanda been a boy she would have been on the ground with every bone in her body broken, that's just what Karen would do to her, Fred would make things much worse…

"Ian" I said "How much info do you have on the virus?"

Ian frowned "Not much"

"Do you know whether or not it's contagious?"

"It is… to an extent. Its base is the Human Immune Deficiency virus, a wise choice, it can make inter-species jump that most viruses can't make, and HIV is a problem in Andalite, Chanaiben and human. Well, since it's based on that virus, at least according to what I have here in front of me, which isn't much, it would only transmittable via the exchange of bodily fluids; blood, mucus membranes… stuff like that"

"So as long as we don't have an orgy when someone's got the virus we should be ok?" Fred asked. Amanda made a face.

"An orgy or a blood swapping ceremony, other than that we won't have any problems with catching the virus from someone else"

"If someone does catch the virus then what do we do?" I asked.

"Keep them comfortable, keep people from seeing when their morphing or shape-shifting goes ga ga, and hope to God there's an antivirus" Ian answered.

"That's reassuring…"

"That's the way it is" The mood in the room was dampened a little but not much.

"Hey guys," Becky said "Look on the bright side, Gloucester is on the beach, well have fun!"

"Without orgies or blood swapping ceremonies, is that possible?" Fred said. Everyone laughed.

_**----------------------------x-----------------------------**_

**Becky**

Hi everyone my name is Becky Thornton. After the rather emotional night I thought that the next meeting may not go as well but it went better than I thought. Amanda looked a lot better than she had last night.

Amanda was experiencing what my grandfather, who served in WWII called Shell Shock. She had just seen too much of war. I could tell just by looking at her that she was not cut out for war. She would have been better as a nurse or someone to provide comfort and companionship, not as a soldier, but alas as Erik says in war you can't hold anything back…

After Fred finished calling his uncle he went to into the kitchen to start cooking. I swear every time I see him in an apron and oven mitts I giggle, Fred is a behemoth of a man. He's at least 6'9 and weighed about 228 pounds, almost all of which is muscle. So seeing him dressed like that, and measuring something out to put in an omelette to boot, well it just seemed like something out of a spoof movie.

Robert was sitting on the couch waiting for breakfast to finish. From when I first met him I saw something in Robert, he was strong and obviously brave. There was a definite hardness there, but I could also sense something gentle in him it was that combination that made him seem really handsome. His trace of muscle and Australian accent didn't hurt things either though.

I sat down next to him and smiled.

"So, Robert right?"

"Yeah, that's me" He said, trying to sound indifferent but I could tell he liked talking to me, of course most people do. My mom always said I gave off that peppy air that made conversation easy.

"You stay at the college right, what's your major?"

"None of yours"

"Hmm, don't have that one at Davidson…"

"Well it's a hard one to find…"

"So, what's your favourite morph?"

"Form. I don't really have one. Do you?"

"I like the salt water crocodile she's big for one thing, and I like having that kind of power when I need it"

"Hey, Erik says you can intercept transmissions, could you contact the Andalites?"

"Sure just give me a radio station antenna, unlimited access to all satellites for three hours, about three square miles of tinfoil and…"

"Ok, I get the message. So you can intercept transmissions easily but you can't contact anyone?"

"That's the way it is, for some reason deep space transmissions are easy to receive but not respond to"

Fred came in with two plates piled high with eggs, toast and bacon.

"Eat up guys you're going to need your strength for the ride over" He walked off. Robert pushed the food around with his fork.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Is it okay for me to eat this? I mean, he wouldn't try and poison me would he?"

I laughed "No, if he wanted you dead he'd kill you in hand to hand combat. Eat"

We ate in silence for a while. I ran into the kitchen and got a second helping. Robert looked at me, then at the food.

"Geez, tell me where does all that go?"

"Near as I can figure the pleasure centre of my brain that's why I'm so cheerful"

"You ever figure out how I can get that cheer you tell me"

"I promise I will" The second plate filled me up. There was nothing more I could do so I headed upstairs to wash my hands. When I was done in the bathroom I started to head downstairs but something being thrown into a wall made me jump. I realised it was coming from one of the rooms and crept towards the partly open door.

"Stupid friggin… how the hell?! Fuck! Oh…no… I can't bel_ieve_ this! Crap crap double crap!" something else was thrown against the wall, and I let out a small yelp.

"What the… who's there?" The door was opened and out stepped Jade.

"Oh, sorry! I…"

"No… it's all right. I might as well tell someone. I haven't told too many people about this though. But…I think someone from your team needs to know…" She led me inside her room where she shut the door.

"Go on"

"Yesterday… when I went to get lunch I didn't exactly go into the restaurant. Amanda did. I went to the doctor" I became concerned and that's rare. Had she already acquired the virus?

"The doctor? Mind if I ask…"

"I had to get a test done, a pregnancy test. I… I just got the results, it's positive…"

"Jade, I… what are you going to do?"

"Nothing for now. I… I asked Ian what shape-shifting did to pregnancy a while back, before I got pregnant… don't tell anyone else _please_, not unless you have to. Only you and Amanda know, I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me or keeping me out of battle because of my 'condition'"

"You have my word" I said.

"Thanks" she said "See you in two days"

_**----------------------------------x-----------------------**_

**Karen**

_Two days later…_

_3.21 am_

My name is Karen Lanely. You know there is one phrase that I always hear when I meet a new group of people, never fails, no gambler would ever bet against it. I didn't have to answer this one for longer than usual when I met the group known as the Black Angels. Alas when I arrived at Jade's house so we could get our things in order for the trip to Massachusetts Robert asked me that question.

"Karen" he said to me in a tone I've grown to recognise over the years "You are one of the most beautiful girls I've met in my life" He picked up a suitcase and tossed it into the back of Jade's car (which would be used to transport them to the bus station) "So I have to ask; why on earth are you dating a member of Future War Criminals America with a scar the size of Jade on his cheek?" I resisted the urge to punch him in the stomach as I followed him back inside.

"Me and Erik have a bond beyond looks. I honestly can tell you that I wasn't physically attracted to him in the beginning, but once we started fighting together I saw his strength and sense of duty, and I began to trust him. Then, one night, he was attacked and I saved his life. Doctored his wounds and he looked so pitiful so I asked him out. I admit it was pity but… when he took me out he treated me wonderful we had the best conversations we found we had a lot in common

"Then he kissed me on my doorstep and when that happened I knew he was the one" I of course left out most of the story. How when he held me in his arms I felt safe and secure even though I had bigger arms than he did. How when he took my hand I felt like I could fly. How I loved to have him run his fingers through my hair…

"So I get why you fell in love with him, but tell me did you stay because he… packed the heavy ammo…" I slapped him across the face.

"Watch your mouth pervert, you're on thin ice with me as it is, and anyway Erik is a very devout Catholic, he doesn't believe in anything past second base…"

"Yeah right, show me a guy who's goal isn't home plate and I'll show you a golden turtle"

"Cough up the golden turtle then" Erik said.

"Hey Ere" I gave him a peck on the lips. I noticed he had just got out of the shower.

"Where's the others?" He asked. Keeping his hands on my shoulders.

"They're on their way, they should be here any minute" He took his arms off and walked over to Robert.

"Hey Robert, I think you should take your bike to Gloucester" He said.

"And _I_" Ian said entering the room carrying two suitcases "Think that's just stupid. Erik are you still trying to make Robert a pawn in your game of chess?"

"Well no, you see I think that if the bus we're riding on were to be attacked or break down we could be delayed for days, and if someone isn't there to at least try and stop Bill Nye the Science Guy from going on his three hour tour then we've started the game playing catch up. We need one… no make that two people going to Gloucester another way just in case" Ian seemed to consider this, and nodded.

"Well… ok then, but Robert don't do anything stupid ok? Obey all the laws, don't speed by a mile even, we don't need attention called to ourselves. Jade, you ride with him…"

"No" Becky had just entered the room "I'll do it"

"You don't have a say in this" Ian said.

"I _am _a radio expert if you guys get into trouble I'll be able to contact you, and anyway I think we need a member of each team riding there independently, because god forbid that bus goes _Final Destination_ on us then there'll be enough people to start another team"

"Ok fine, but don't try anything, Robert you are to take no commands from her understood?"

"Yep" Robert said "I think that me and Becky should go ahead, if we get a head start we can avoid the traffic"

"Then go, but call us if you stop anywhere for the night, we're sleeping on the bus"

"I will. C'mon Becky, let's go" They walked out and a few minutes later I heard a motorcycle blast to life.

"Um, Becky _will_ be ok with him, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, she'll be fine. I doubt she's Robert's type anyway" Ian said. I saw Fred's ford pickup pull up out front. He was going to take us to the station.

"You better be right Ian. Becky's like a sister to me" I walked out and climbed into the truck.


	14. Another near miss

**Chapter by gpshaw**

**Erik**

_19 hours later…_

The announcement woke me up from my sleep. We had arrived in Gloucester. The bus stop wasn't far from the Crow's Nest so we walked. The smell of salt was heavy in the air. The Crows Nest was still pretty active when we went in the music was loud and we opened the heavy wooden door and saw Fred's uncle standing behind the bar.

"Fred" he smiled "Glad to see you, sorry but I have to run, your rooms are 101-109, your two friends are already here, you can do anything you want to them as long as you pay for it, other than that there's no real rules, but I warn you those lights overhead shake so… anyway, I need to get home see you guys later" He walked out the door I noticed he was missing and entire arm. I had no shoes and I pitied myself…

We each walked into our respective rooms. The rooms were bare necessity one double bed, a TV, a bathroom and a kitchenette, and that was about it. The first thing we did was get together in the bar, the background noise would cut down on eavesdroppers.

"Ok" I said "We've got to check the ships that may be used, now I counted four in the harbour that's enough for us to split into teams of two. I want you to check each ship for possible escape routes, and most of all for placed they could be hiding stuff, is that clear" I asked.

"Since _when _are we taking orders from _you_?" Robert asked.

"Ian do you have a better idea?"

"Robert just _listen_ to the guy for Christ's sake" Ian said rubbing his temples "Spying's his area, and he knows what he's doing"

"Thanks" I said "Ok now we need to remain unseen but not in morphs, use darkness to hide. Now if someone's on board try and listen in on the conversation; see what you can find. Any questions?" No hands went up "Ok then, Ian and Amanda, you check the first boat on the pier it's called the _Hanna Bowden_, Robert and Becky you two check the _Lisa Fetner_, Jade and I will check the _Neptune_, Fred and Karen will check the _Ellen Moore_, we leave in five minute intervals, ok so Ian and Amanda you go ahead"

Five minutes later I walked out with Jade, we got to the pier and saw the _Neptune_ docked. We each climbed on board. I didn't notice anyone yet. I took a flashlight from my knapsack and gave another to Jade. We looked around the outside of the ship. Most of it was fishing stuff, gaffs (large hooks), net, and glow sticks.

I saw the entrance to the cabins and opened the door. I turned on the light and was shocked. Instead of pictures of women and fish the walls were covered with charts of scientific data. Lying on a night stand I found a journal. I opened it. There was only one page. It was a list of inventory but only one caught my attention.

_Virus Vial- ice box below decks._

"It says here that the virus is stored in an ice box. If I remember correctly they should be somewhere at the bottom of the ship. It's where they store fish in order to keep them fresh. We need to get down there if we can get a copy of the virus then maybe we can get Ian to make a cure" I said.

"Ok lead the way then… shit!" Jade hissed.

"What?" I asked.

"Look" I looked outside.

"Shit!" I said. Outside there were two people in a lab coat one had a gun. I heard their voices.

"Why do we have to leave now?"

"Because a ship full of scientific equipment and weapons leaving in the middle of the day would attract attention and we don't want attention" Outside there were four more guards and… ten Hork-Bajir? In public. I saw more Hork-Bajir come from the other side.

"In morph now!"

Jade became a white tigress, I closed my eyes. A mane burst from my head. My face blew outward. My eyes became a lions and I could see plain as day. As I finished my changes I counted the Hork-Bajir there were at least 20, and there also at least ten men with guns. This was going to be tough. I turned off the light with my paw.

(Guys we need to move NOW get to the Neptune on the double they are leaving I repeat they are leaving get over here NOW we are cornered)

"Hey, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Thought I heard thought speak"

"You're losing your mind, just get the vial below decks and hurry!" Then I noticed that the door to below decks was the cabin we were in. The door opened…

_**---------------------------x-------------------**_

**Fred**

My name is Fred. We were checking one of the ships and were almost positive it wasn't the right one. Our suspicions were confirmed when Erik called for help. Karen was in her Jaguar morph in an instant and was running full tilt to the boat. Becky was already on her way too in her salt water morph. _She would have an advantage, _I thought.

As for me I went into my favourite morph. I lost weight fast. My entire body caved in the pain was literally blinding. My arms and legs retracted into my body. My face fused together. My eyes shrank and I was blind in the darkness but then my tongue and pits came in. Pits allowed a snake to see heat.

I saw the world in an infrared glow. My fangs and poison sacs came in. Soon I was fully spitting cobra. I flew to the boat. I saw at least 20 Hork-Bajir going into the boat. It must have been dark enough to hide them.

Karen had already joined the fight full-force she was clawing wildly at one Hork-Bajir and had already broke the neck of another.

I entered the fight almost unnoticed then bit four Hork-Bajir. Each one, being highly allergic to cobra venom fell over and died.

(Here lizard, lizard, lizard) I said chomping down on another Hork-Bajir. A gunshot missed me. I spit my venom into the eyes of the offending human. He screamed in pain. I saw Erik's lion morph tearing at a few Hork-Bajir. Robert and Becky joined the fray full-force. Becky took out two Hork-Bajir at once with her jaws. The gun shot was at an angle so it bounced off her scales. The man who fired the shot was now legally blind.

Jade's tigress form was dealing out its own damage, but a lucky slash took out her left eye.

(Ahh!)

(Jade!) Robert and Amanda cried in unison.

"Roooaaaaarrr!!!" Erik's lion morph pounced on the offending Hork-Bajir.

(Ok enough of the killing spree!) Ian said (Where's the scientist?)

(I think he's below decks) Erik said, taking a head off a Hork-Bajir (Jade, Fred and I will go and get the bastard you guys stay up here and sweep up the leftovers)

(Bullshit Bishop!) Robert snapped, and I resisted the urge to bite the prick right then (I'm going with you, there's no way I'm playing cleanup, and plus if you think I'm leaving you alone with Jade…) he was fighting tow Hork-Bajir as he said this.

(There's more guys up here than down there, and…) Robert jumped and slapped Erik with his paw, he didn't use his claws though.

(Listen you, you may have forgotten about trying to make me your Kamikaze warrior but _I _haven't and if you think you're doing the same to Jade… hey what the fuck are you doing Fred… Ahh! I can't see!) I had fired a shot of venom in his eyes.

(We'll be going now) I said And I slid through the door to the cabins.

(Fred!) Erik yelled. Following me (I can't… we'll talk about this later let's just go!)

(What did he do to Robert that little n…) Amanda began but I interrupted my voice was not my own it was the voice I had the night I almost killed the man who had called my little sister the N word.

(Watch your mouth Blondie or I swear I'll…)

(FRED!!) Erik yelled (Now is not the time lets go) I followed, grateful to get away from what might have been a bad situation. Jade was already waiting for us. We ran down the stairs that led to below decks. When we reached the storage room I saw the many compartments that would be filled with ice had this been a real sword expedition. Then my infrared vision spotted two warm bodies near a mass of cold.

"Is the vial in there?" One man said.

"Yes it is but remember the scientist said not to let it heat up do you think it will be safe? I… oh fuck Andalites. Shoot em!"

I blinded the man who gave the order and Jade had clawed out the neck of the other man that was standing there. We all demorphed, and started searching through the ice. I didn't see anything.

"Come on where are you…" I murmured then I noticed something one of the men had an unpinned grenade, and as luck would have it a spasm made him let go of the handle.

"Oh…"

"Get down!" Erik yelled and jumped on the grenade. The explosion shot him upwards and I could see that most of his belly had been blown away. Jade screamed. When he landed I ran over and checked his pulse even though I knew… I felt a pulse. I tapped his shoulder.

"Erik, buddy can you hear me?" Erik moaned. I turned to Jade "Keep him awake and try to get him to morph off the wound. I'll be back I saw a medical kit in the cabin it may have something to make him wake up enough to morph fast" Jade looked shocked.

"How can I keep him…"

"Just talk to him Jade, please, I'll be right back" I ran up the stairs fighting back tears. I was not going to let my best friend die…


	15. Failed Mission

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Jade**

You know, twenty-four hours before, all I was mostly worried about was how to tell the guy I loved I was pregnant. Now… I'd seen Erik risk his life by throwing himself on a grenade. He would die if I didn't find out some way to help him…

I collapsed on my knees beside him, watching as he took in sharp, jagged breaths. He was fighting, and I knew I'd never doubt this man's bravery again. If… if he survived I'd tell him that…

Erik moaned again, and then his head lolled to the side and began to drop…

"NO!! Erik, stay with me, ok. Keep fighting. I'm here for you" I grabbed his head in my hands, forcing him to look up at me. His eyes had a strange glazed look in them…

"Okay, that's it. Just listen to the sound of my voice, all right? That's it" Outside I sounded calm and strong, but inside I'd become a nervous wreck. There was only so much someone could take…

_You can snap later! Right now you've got to save him!!_ My mind screamed at me. So I did…

His stomach had been ripped open, and he was bleeding profusely. He tried to say something to me, but ended up coughing blood.

"Don't you give in just yet. Think of who you're fighting for. Think of… oh god… think of Karen, ok? You wouldn't give up on her now, would you?" My voice shook as I said this, and I watched as he tried to pull in longer breaths, showing me he'd fight on. I hoped it was enough, because if Fred didn't get back soon, Erik would end up our first casualty in this battle…

He coughed again, and the blood to actually began to ooze from his mouth, over my hands which were still holding his face. No, he wouldn't make it more than a few more seconds, not unless I did something to help him… and an image got stuck in my brain. It was of eight years ago, training with Ithiell… and that image gave birth to an idea. I didn't know if it would work, but it was either that or watch this man die…

"Okay, Erik, just listen to me, all right? We're going to… no! Don't go to sleep! All right, that's it. Now, we're going to play a game called copycat, all right. I become something, and you mimic the sha… the morph I'm doing, all right?"

I didn't know if he heard me or not, or even if he understood it. I let go of him and backed up a little, focusing on becoming the lion I'd seen him morph into that night. My nose turned wet and my ears began to slide up to the sides of my head… but I was doing this very slowly, I was letting him watch me change. I almost cried with relief as I realised he _was_ watching me, that glazed look halfway gone. And then, he began to morph.

If he had been in agony before, this was a whole new level of pain. His knees reversed direction, and he screamed in pain. Then… he stopped.

(NO! Don't give up! You're doing it! Keep going!) I cried as my mane sprouted from my neck, and a tail erupted from my spine.

"Can't… I…" he gasped out, and blood continued to spill from his mouth…

(Remember who you're fighting for! Remember Karen!) I yelled at him, frantic now. I thought he'd give up, but then I saw him start to morph again. He gritted his teeth, trying to hold in the screams I knew where at the back of his throat. But he kept going, and so did I, completing my shift. Very soon, Erik was now a full grown male lion. A full, complete lion. Instincts and all.

He growled at me, and began to advance towards me. I backed up, knowing this was not the time to start a fight….

(Come on Erik, take control) I instructed him, beginning to shift back to human, knowing if he didn't see me as a threat then maybe he'd…

He pounced! He knocked me to the floor in mid-shift.

(Erik no! It's me! It's Jade!) I screamed in absolute terror, still shifting in spite of everything. My lion's muzzle disappeared, and was replaced by a human face. Now, I was fully human again. And I felt his weight beginning to crush my ribs.

I don't know if it was the look of pain and terror on my face (because that's certainly how I _felt_) or the fact that I was no longer a threat, but something must have triggered something in Erik's brain.

(I… oh god I'm so sorry Jade) He removed his giant paws, beginning to demorph. I just lay there for a minute, unable to get up. I took deep breaths, rubbing my ribs. They seemed ok, maybe a little bruised, but other than that…

When he was human again he helped me up off the floor. I squinted at him in the darkness, then at his belly… the clothes he was wearing was still ripped and bloody, but his stomach… it was whole! I touched it, then realised what I was doing and jumped back, a little embarrassed at my actions. Curiosity got the better of me sometimes.

"Oh, uh, sorry" He just looked down at me.

"Thanks Jade. You saved my life"

"Uh, you're… welcome?"

At that moment, Fred returned, with Karen in tow. When she saw Erik she ran to him, throwing her arms around him and almost bawling. I backed off, a little uncomfortable, and looked up at Fred who was just joining us. He just stared at me.

"I can't believe you did it. You got him to morph"

"Uh-huh"

"Well… thankyou" he said, and I just smiled sadly and nodded.

(Guys! You have thirty seconds to find that virus before we have to leave! Amanda's in the air, and she just spotted more coming) Ian's frantic voice cut through my head like a knife. We turned our attention back to the ice, each of us searching frantically through it. We couldn't find anything…

"Where is it!?" Karen cried, near hysterical. I could honestly say I wasn't afar behind her.

(Guys! We're going to need you up here NOW! It's either that or we're all doomed!)

(And Jade better be with you!) Robert added.

"But what about…"

"You heard him, we don't have _time_ for…"

"But we can't just…"

"Let's just get out of here while we still…"

"Who said you're going anywhere?" A voice said from behind us, and we turned to see three Hork-Bajir standing there, Dracon beams levelled at us. _Uh-oh…_

"What is the meaning of this!" I suddenly roared, catching even me off-guard. I had to think on my toes with this one…

"Meaning of _gafrat _what?! Catching you Andalites…"

"These three are scientists sent to inspect the vials before we leave, and I…" I stepped forward, focusing on shifting the one thing that could help us, hoping to god I'd get it right. When I was done, the three Hork-Bajir looked like they wanted to turn and walk away… no, make that run away screaming in pure terror.

"V-visser, you are…"

"Why were you a _cahalsh _a weak human girl?" Another asked. Obviously smarter than his two friends. Or dumber, whichever one you liked call it. Weak girl? What an insult…

(I do not have to explain my motives to you!) I jumped forward, and sliced the neck of the one who had doubted me. No one calls me weak…

The others shook, and went to make a run for it, but before they could get far I'd turned them into chop-sui.

"Wow, good thinking"

(Sure, let's just get up top before we're all dead) I ran, and as I ran I shifted back to my human self, knowing if anyone caught us I'd rather they think we were ordinary vandals or something, not a bunch of Andalites in morph trying to destroy the ship. When we got back up on deck I saw Ian and the others had the same idea.

"You guys ok?" Ian asked, and Becky let out a grateful cry. But before she could say anything, a shot rung out, and we turned to see a bunch of humans being led by an old man.

"There they are! Andalites! Get them!" He yelled, and something went past my ear. The men looked like they were carrying what I hoped were only guns…

"Look out!" Amanda suddenly screamed, shoving Fred aside. Seconds later something with a red tip was sticking out of her neck. She stumbled back against the side of the ship, and began to fall….

"Amanda!" I dove forward, grabbing her arm as she fell, and we both tumbled over the side. We hit the water, the iciness of it making me gasp. Then the water lapped over us… and for a little while I think we were sinking…

I don't exactly remember what happened next, or how we managed to get back to the dock, but before I realised it I was being hauled out of the water, with my numb hands now empty…


	16. Human Nature

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Robert**

Fred and Ian pulled a wet and unmoving Amanda out of the water, then Erik went and helped as they pulled Jade out. She was wet as well, but she was awake, and shivering. Becky went over to her, taking her jacket off and putting it around Jade's shaking shoulders.

After Jade and Amanda fell, we managed to get off the boat. We'd run and hid until they left. We were about to go into the water after them, with Ian almost hysterical, when a hand reached out of the water and grabbed onto the dock. The hand belonged to Jade, and she was still holding tight to Amanda.

Becky helped Jade up, and Ian was trying to shake Amanda awake, pulling the thing out of her neck and about to throw it away.

"No don't! We need to know what was in that" Karen grabbed for the dart that Ian had thrown. He looked surprised at her, then nodded. Amanda only then decided to wake up.

"What huh? Wh-why am I so c-c-collld?!" She was shaking like Jade now, and Ian helped her up.

"You got dunked in the water" Ian explained as we all began to slowly walk back down the dock, towards the hotel.

"Wait! What about the boat?!" Jade suddenly cried, pulling away from Becky.

"Long gone" Karen said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"We _could _have gotten a sample! If you could just…"

"Shut up asshole" I snapped.

"Want to make something of it?!" Fred turned on me, angry. By then we'd reached the end of the pier, and began walking back to the front of the hotel.

"Only if you want to _pal_" I snarled. I did _not_ like being blinded and then attacked by this guy. There was only so much more I could take.

"Both of you, quit it!" Ian said, sounding a little more than agitated.

"For a matter of fact I _won't _you little…"

"Fred" Erik warned, and he shut up pretty quickly after that. Although I didn't want him to. I wanted him to keep coming, and underestimate me so much that I could take him down before he even had time to blink. I ached to put my hands around his throat and… no, no, that wouldn't do… too simple…

We reached the hotel/bar, whatever it was, and Becky and Ian led Jade and Amanda inside, out of the cold night air. Karen and Erik followed close behind.

"Fuckin prick" Fred muttered as he moved to open the door again.

"_What_ did you say?" That was the turning point. I'd had enough.

"I said you're a fucking prick!! Why, want to fight?!"

Before he could finish his sentence, my fist was hitting his face full-on. He stumbled back, shocked.

"Yeah. Yeah I do, thanks for the offer"

"Oh no, that's it!!" In seconds he was on me, and his elbow connected with my cheek, sending me stumbling, and kick delivered to my shin sent me down on the ground in absolute agony.

"Had enough white boy?" Fred snarled, leaning close to me. That face… my father use to have that face…

"No" I pulled my good leg up and around, kicking him where no man in their right mind wants to be kicked. He fell down, hard.

"You fucking lunatic! What'd you do that for?!" He yelled at me as I got up, balancing myself since my shin still felt like someone had hit it with a sledgehammer. His well built frame certainly did well for something. He was built like cement!

"Why the hell do you think I did it?" I sneered as he managed to get back onto his feet, facing me. He grabbed his nose, and I realised that's what part of his face I'd hit. I guess I'd underestimated my own strength. When he pulled his hand away I saw blood there.

"Mother fuckin-" In seconds he was on me again, hitting me in the stomach, and when I gasped for air, his leg came up and connected with my mouth. I fell back onto the ground, barely still conscious. The pain in my mouth was so painful it was numbing, and I could barely get a few good breaths in before I started coughing.

"Not fuckin… you can morph your wounds off" I gasped out, trying to breathe deep and stand up at the same time.

"Fred!"

"Robert!" Came the voices, and I felt someone yanking me up, supporting me roughly when I almost fell over again. I spat out what felt a lot like blood.

"What the heck are you two doing?!" Erik's voice sounded angry, and as I looked up I saw he was beside Fred, who was giving me death stares. I stared right back.

"Little fucker started it" Fred muttered.

"Well you asked for it you mother fucking…"

"Don't you _dare_ bring my mother into this! You don't know…"

"And you don't know me!" I retorted.

"Enough! Both of you!" Ian snapped, meeting my gaze for just a moment. He was disappointed in me, I could tell. Also extremely pissed.

"Fred, no more, all right? That goes for you too Robert" Erik added.

"Why the _fuck_ would…"

"Robert!" Ian snapped, and I fell silent.

"Well… let's get you both inside. We can figure this out in the morning" Erik and Fred went inside, and Ian and I followed, with me still feeling frustrated. I saw the look in his eyes… the look my father used to control me. I could take it from him. No one else. Especially not this wannabe killer…

_**------------------------x--------------------------**_

I'd actually had fun on the way to Gloucester, believe it or not. Becky's positive attitude was quite catching. I found myself smiling a little as she held on tightly to my back, my helmet on her head as I dived and weaved through the highway traffic. We stopped more than once, after all it was rough being on that bike for so long. We had a something to eat on the way, and all the while she giggled and smiled at me, talking to me about her work as a communications expert. I almost let out a smile to her once, still playing the part. As hard as I tried to keep her away, I felt something pulling me towards her. Or, better put, she cut through my defences like a knife through butter. That peppy air seemed to reach past and start pull out the good things about me; things I didn't even know I had.

It was even more so when we were assigned to search the ship called the _Lisa Fetner_. She handed me a flashlight, giggling a little in the dark.

"It's almost like from that movie… what was it? The one with Jennifer Love Hewitt in it?"

"Uhh… _I Know What You Did Last Summer?_"

"No you don't" She giggled, and I resited the urge to smile at her. She nudged me forward as we started to search the inside of the ship.

"Smartypants" I replied, swinging my torch this way and that, unable to keep the subtle smile from my face. But that all changed when Erik told us the bad news again… then all that other stuff happened… it was totally overboard.

I paced my room that night, unable to sleep. Ian had used his computer, as well as a lot of the scientific equipment he'd borrowed off Rtaia and Lowri to find out what was in that dart. Guess what it was? The virus.

He checked Amanda over, who swore she was fine; nothing felt wrong, and she didn't seem to be breaking out in rashes or anything like that. But he was going to keep his eye on her just in case. There was a chance since it wasn't developed properly that the dart thing was a dud. Erik didn't believe it. Neither did I.

So, we'd just been told to go to bed, and we'd work out a way to get the swordfish morphs for the Glass Dagger team in the morning. Ian had an idea, but for now he just wanted all of us to rest. It had been a long few days.

I rubbed my bruised jaw again, grateful that Fred hadn't broken it. I'd surprised myself, attacking him as I did. In some sense he had it coming to him. But… then I thought back, to the conversation with Karen before we left… I just wasn't myself anymore. Glass Dagger had put me on the edge. I didn't know how far I could push with these guys. And what I'd said to Karen… well, it had been stupid of me. After all, every member of the Black Angels team carried more than one scar from the past nine years. Both inside and out. We didn't come out of god knows how many battles without a scratch on us, as much as I wanted us to. Shape-shifting could only do so much…

I got sick of pacing, grabbed my room key and some money and walked out the door. I needed a drink, something to get my mind off everything. I fast-walked down the…

And that's when I heard it. A sniffle. Something so small you could have almost missed it. But for some reason… I didn't. And it was coming from the room right next to mine. Becky's room.

"Uh… Becky?" I called, knocking on the door before I could stop myself. Seconds later the door was opened and I looked down to see Becky, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked.

"I… it's just…" She gulped back more tears, stepping aside so I could come in.

"Did someone hurt you? Someone from the bar or something?"

"No, it's… nothing like that. I just… Erik was nearly killed tonight… and he… I don't know what… you…" She seemed at a loss for words, shutting the door and going to sit on the edge of the bed. I could see her hands were shaking a little as she clasped them together on her lap.

Now, normally I would probably turn and walk away. But I'd seen someone I loved dearly like this once before… with more bruises than I could count on her skin… and her eyes were so vacant… but instead I sat down next to her, not too close, in case she thought I was going to do something to her. I wasn't. I'd seen my mother raped and abused for too long not to know what was right and wrong to do in this situation. When the soul is bruised, you kind of can't turn away as easily as you'd want to. I couldn't…

"It's tough to know someone you care about could die, is that it?"

"Y-yes. Erik… I don't know what would happen if we lost him. He's like a brother…"

"I guess our teams aren't so different after all, huh? We both have strong ties with one another, and…" I trailed off, not knowing what else to say. I looked down at her. Her hands were shaking more visibly now, and fresh tears were welling up in her eyes.

"We almost lost him! They almost killed Erik!" She suddenly cried, and before I could move, her face was buried in my shoulder, her hands beating my chest with ferocity, then eventually more weakly. I bit back a sound from deep within my throat, not knowing what to do. Her tears were wetting the front of my shirt, and her cries cut straight through me. Her pain was hard to see.

But… my arms went around her, holding her. It seemed to help, because her sobs began to subside, until it was a strange sort of breathing. Her fists unclenched, and just lay flat on my chest.

Now, I don't know when this… what started as a simple comforting embrace turned into something more, but before I knew it her lips found my own, and her tongue trailed the inside of my mouth. Her arms were around my neck, and my arms were securely around her waist, pulling her close.

I knew the danger there. I'd seen it before. But something just wouldn't let me back away from her. In seconds my shirt had vanished, and my hands were beginning to lift her shirt, playing with her bellybutton and stomach. But when her own hand guided mine to the swell under her shirt, I gasped and pulled back.

"What? What is it?" She asked, and I heard the need in her voice.

"We… we can't… I… don't want to hurt you…"

"It's all right. I want you to…" She kissed me again, and my will to resist her was lost. Our clothes vanished and we lay on the bed. And for the first time in my life, I felt like something was right for once.

_**------------------------x--------------------------**_

Hours past, until it was so late it was early. Becky had fallen asleep, and I put on my pants on and walked over to the window. I moved the curtain to look outside. From here I could sort of see the dock, and the one place that had once been occupied by the _Neptune_. Long gone by now, probably halfway out to the underwater lab. I sighed and shook my head. Maybe Fred was right…

A soft humming made me turn around and look back at Becky, who was just waking up.

"Robert?"

"Sorry if I woke you. Go back to sleep and I'll…"

"No, stay. Please" She sat up, her eyes pleading with me.

"Becky…" I began, not sure what to say next "I think after tonight I might have… we didn't even get a…"

"You might have what? Gotten me pregnant?"

I nodded, trying not to let it show on my face that it had gotten to me. She sighed and patted the bed next to her. I sat down.

"Robert, I've got something to tell you about the Glass Dagger team"

"What? What is it?" I tensed up. After all, war had taught me to be prepared for the unexpected.

"The Glass Dagger team… we're all sterile"

"Huh? What? But… you didn't just all meet up by accident…"

"Do you remember how we told you about getting the morphing power?"

"Yeah?"

"Well… we had more than just the problem of… the pain of morphing isn't the only thing we suffer"

I was taken aback. I blinked, looking her and trying to figure out if she was telling me the truth or not. From the way her eyes… no, she was telling the truth. Her eyes looked straight into mine when she said it, and I finally nodded at her.

"I'm sorry"

"It's not your fault"

"Still… I used…"

"I wanted you to… you don't regret it, do you?"

I shook my head, letting out what must have been my first genuine smile in almost a decade "No, never"

Her solemn look was gone, replaced by her cute peppy grin.

"So, want to try it again?"

I gave her my answer by kissing her ad wrapping my arms around her small slight frame.


	17. Infected

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Amanda**

My name is Amanda. And the past week I was so not myself. I'd almost called Fred the 'n' word. Not to mention breaking down before that and making a fool of myself. Then the rest…

I was fine. Or, according to Ian, I 'wasn't showing any symptoms as yet'. I swear, that boy of mine was born to be a scientist. Either that or a patronising alien. Probably both.

We met on the dock again, this time in broad daylight. By mid-day two ships had left the bay, excluding our little science ship. Well, that was over with. We couldn't do anything about it now. But now… we had to focus on getting morphs for the Glass Dagger team.

We hired a couple of small speed boats to go out to the place where they caught swordfish. Jade and I would be the ones to go down and get them. Since all the Glass Dagger team had were shark morphs, and I think Fred said an eel too, and all Robert knew how to do was a great white. Ian… well, we needed Ian up here, to keep watch for anything 'unusual'. Well, anything unusual besides us. He also needed to be able to stop Robert from starting anything again.

We went four to each boat. Jade, me, Fred and Ian went on the first, and Erik, Robert, Karen and Becky were on the second one. Jade and I were wearing scooba-diving outfits under sweatpants and sweaters. We'd worn shoes too, which was really stupid of us. Fred took to steering, hitting the throttle and making all three of us stumble a little.

I had talked to Fred and apologised about a thousand times to me. He forgave me, and ended up smiling at me a little. He also thanked me for saving his life. Well, at least taking a hit for him.

When we got to the place Fred slowed down a little, and we began to move slowly through all the normal fishing boats. When we got to a place that was a little less populated, near an alcove sort of thing behind some rocks, Fred cut the engine and dropped what I thought was an anchor or something. Minutes later, Erik pulled the second boat up beside us. The boats bumped together a little, but Robert managed to stop it from doing that too much.

"Well, that was fun" Jade muttered, holding her stomach. She looked a little sick. I didn't know whether it was from the boat ride or something else…

"You ok?" I asked her. She looked up at me and nodded.

"Maybe someone should go in her place" Becky suggested. Jade shook her head.

"No I'm fine. I can do this" We both took off our jumpers, sweatpants and shoes, and sat there shivering in the scooba outfits.

"Where'd you get those?" Karen asked us.

"I have cousins who like scooba diving a lot. I borrowed it off them a while ago and they let me keep them afterwards" I told her, and I caught a smirk from Robert. But of course, he remembered them…

"All right, ready?" Jade asked me. At that moment a lone fisher decided to sidle up next to us. We must've been a sight; eight kids sitting on two boats.

"Hey, what you kids doing out here?" A man asked us, coming to the side of the boat.

"Just exploring a little" Becky replied for us, putting on her trademark smile.

"Well… you kids be careful. Word was there were a few hoodlums trying to steal stuff from a boat… and someone apparently got killed"

"Really?" Erik asked, sounding genuinely surprised. He looked it too.

The man eyed his scar "Yeah. So you kids watch out, all right?"

"Sure, we will" Becky said, still smiling. Then… the guy did a double take. He looked from Erik to Ian and inside we all tensed up.

"Are you two brothers or something? You sure do look alike"

"Cousins, actually" I said before either of them could talk "Look a lot a like, don't they?" I gave my own 'winning' smile.

"Yeah. Well, see you kids" he said, and his ship pulled away. Immediately, Erik turned to me.

"Sweet save Amanda. Now, let's get some swordfish morphs, shall we?"

"Sure" I replied, then sat on the edge of the boat, letting go of my hold and falling backwards and outside of the boat. I hit the cold water, sinking below it and holding my breath. With that, I began to shift into a bottlenose dolphin. Beside me, I felt something hit the water and start to sink as well. I knew it was Jade, and I hurried up shifting, knowing how wonderful it was to be a dolphin. My legs turned into spaghetti and twisted around themselves, fusing together to create the dolphins tail. My face erupted, and the blowhole at my back appeared. I felt my body stretching a little, and my arms shrivelled up and reformed into the dolphins fins. Finally, a dorsal fin appeared, and my shift was complete. By the time this was done, I was out of breath, and broke the surface, sucking in a breath through my blowhole. Beside me, Jade erupted out of the water, then splashed back down.

(Ha HA!!) She screamed in pure joy.

(Jade remember, we've got to get moving) I reminded her.

(Are you two ok? Amanda, do you feel alright?) Ian asked in thought-speak, since he wasn't in his natural form, and could talk to us this way.

(I'm fine Ian, all right? Just focus on trying to keep other people away while we do this, ok?) I breathed in deep, then dove beneath the surface with Jade by my side. We echo located and spotted a whole group of them. Before we could get there through, they were pulled up by a fisherman's net.

(Dammit! And I almost had one too!) Jade said as she rocketed past me, then stopped so I could catch up. We moved around the bay, echo locating and trying not to be seen or caught in the process. Or killed…

(There's one!) I cried, speeding after it before Jade could say anything. It ran, but I was too fast for it. I opened my mouth, and hit it going full speed and trapping it. It tried to squirm away from me, and I almost dropped it, but I clamped down as hard as I possibly could, without breaking it in half.

(You got it!)

(Yeah, know let's get back to the boat. I don't think these sorts of dolphins eat swordfish. It's too big for my mouth) I said, and we made our way slowly back, being careful not to be caught. It took us a little while to find it, but then…

(Catch!) I called, throwing the fish high in the air above them. To my surprise it was actually Karen who caught it, holding it firmly as it squirmed in her hands, then acquired it. I watched all this as I surface, through the eye that was pointed towards them.

"Thanks guys" Erik said.

"Come on, time to shift back. No one is looking… but we don't know how long that will last" Ian said a little edgily.

(All right, just a minute) Jade moaned. After all, it was fun being a dolphin. Instincts or not. Just being able to move so cleanly through the water.

Reluctantly, Jade shape-shifted first, and Fred and Ian pulled her on board. She looked like a wet rag doll. Too bad I'd look like that soon too.

I dove under the water, and focused on becoming myself again. I felt my arms reform, and my mouth return to normal. My dorsal fin disappeared…

Then I realised something was wrong.

I broke the surface, right beside the boat, still only half human. My lower half was still a dolphins.

"Amanda! What are you…?"

"Feel weird Ian… help me…" I trailed off my mouth feeling dry. Somehow… don't ask me how… I managed to complete my shift. I felt so tired though…

Ian dragged me on board, holding me in his arms.

"Amanda, can you hear me? Are you all right?"

"Ummmnnhhh, I can't…" I faded out, and when I woke up I heard Erik saying,

"It must still have had enough potency to work on human forms"

"So… what do we do now?"

"Get her back and out of sight before anything else happens, that's what"

"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's…" I faded out again, and I was vaguely aware as we began to move again. The next thing I felt was being in a bed, sweating and then shivering under blankets that were not from my own bed…

**Hope this works well with everything else gpshaw! **


	18. Decisions

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

Amanda was out cold in her room. Ian had taken some blood tests and sent them to Lowy or whoever for confirmation of the infection, but we all knew she had it. In a few hours we got the confirmation.

"Based on what we know about the virus" Ian began "There are antibodies that match the antigens, so she does have the virus" There was a little surprise in the group, but it still hit the group hard, especially Jade.

"So" I said "What do we do know?" We were sitting at the bar again no one else was around but the bartender, some man named Josh.

"We have little choice" Ian said "We make good use of those sword fish we caught and get to that lab. When we get there we need to get into the computer room and get all the information on that virus that we can, and if possible we look for the antivirus"

"That's it?" Robert asked "That's the plan?"

"It's all we've got" Ian said.

"Ian, Georges Banks is a three day trip from this city. We have no boat, the swordfish morphs we got looked small, and…" I heard laughing. I saw one of the men who had run into us on the water laughing at us. He had just come from the bathroom; he had the smell of whiskey on his breath.

"You guys thought that was a sword fish you caught?" He said, near tears from laughter "What city are you from, those were _codfish _ha, good lord…" I was scared for a minute, how much had he heard? "You toped yourselves you threw them back codfish sells, big time, and…" Fred interrupted him.

"So, since you seem to know so much where can we catch some swordfish?"

"Well" Josh said, interrupting Fred from starting another fight "Depends, do you want to eat it or sell?"

"Eat" I said thinking off the top of my head.

"Well there's a sword boat coming in sometime today, you help them unload and they'll probably let you buy some. Don't worry about Randy" He pointed to the man who had talked to us "He's nuts"

"Thanks for the help" I said.

"You're welcome" he walked off.

"So" Becky said "We have to reacquire by helping unload a bunch of smelly fish" she winkled her nose "Bring it on!"

"Wait" Jade said "I thought you couldn't acquire DNA from dead animals"

"Well that's one thing we got the long end of the stick on when we made our own cube we can acquire anything with DNA left in it and there is DNA in dead animals for awhile, since they're going to be frozen I know they'll be enough for us to acquire"

"All right then, problem one solved" Robert said "But we've still got to find a boat to take us out there"

"That won't be hard at all" Fred said "My uncle owns a sword boat; we can go out on it"

"If your uncle owns a boat then why is he tending bars?" Robert asked.

"He likes to hang around fishermen who don't complain about how much he pays them. So he tends the bar here part time, plus his captain has been having a cold streak so he needs to make ends meet"

"Since we have the boat and the morphs we only need to know where the lab is" I said "Do we know that?"

"Yeah" Ian said "The transmissions gave us the exact coordinates of is, the best thing is that there is a docking bay for a submarine that's not guarded so we can just swim in and try to blend in, hopefully we won't have to fight at all" We all knew that wasn't possible.

_**----------------------------------x--------------------------**_

**Karen**

I walked back to my room after the meeting. Erik walked me to my room.

"Do you think we'll make it in time" I asked.

"Yeah" Erik said.

"How do you know that?"

"We have to" he said simply.

"Erik, you of all people should know the virus likely has a vaccine but no true antivirus, no cure, once someone is infected…"

"I know" Erik said "But I have a plan"

"What?"

"They don't need an antivirus right now. Why? Because they'll give the vaccine to Visser One before they release the virus" I caught on and smiled.

"But if Visser one were to somehow get the virus…" I said.

"Say from a dart gun fired at him from an Andalite rouge…"

"They would have no choice…"

"But to make a cure" we both laughed a little.

"But we have a problem" I said "What if Visser One isn't there when we get there?"

"Visser One has been here the whole time, didn't you see his human morph on the boat? There have been no ships coming in, no reports of UFO's around the area, Visser One is there, and he's likely there because he wants the vaccine as soon as its created"

"But what if it already is created, the vaccine I mean?"

"If it were we'd already be dead" Erik said "But we're short on time; we have to move as son as possible, tomorrow, two days from now at the latest" I nodded.

"In that case we need to keep an eye out for the ship" I turned to walked in my room he put his hand on my shoulder and turned me around and kissed me. I kissed him back and put my arms around his neck. Then I put my left hand on his stomach my hand shot back, I felt a sharp point.

"What was that?!" I yelped in spite of myself. Erik smiled.

"Shrapnel, left in my stomach from that little incident last night" I didn't want to talk about last night. I had been so scared. Fred had come to get me because he couldn't find anything to help Erik, he had brought me in to say goodbye, when I got there I saw him whole, I had run over and thrown my arms around him. I must have held him like that for ten minutes, I was afraid if I let him go he'd disappear. I never wanted to be that scared again, just thinking of it made me embrace him and rest my head on his chest.

"Get some rest" He said, kissing me on my head " I'll get you when the boat comes in"

**Becky**

Things weren't awkward between me and Robert. I was happy for that. I had only slept with one other men before last night. The day after things just weren't the same. That was one story I continuously related to when Karen came to me complaining about Erik's resistance to her advances.

Erik expected us to just sit around until the ship came in, but sitting around isn't my strong suit. I knocked on Roberts door.

"Come in" I heard. I opened the door. He was wearing tight sweatpants and no shirt and I blushed in spite of myself. He was wearing a sweatband and was in a fighting stance I couldn't place (The 6 months with Danny, Erik's informant included martial arts training). I also noticed Robert still had a few marks from the fight with Fred.

"Hey" I said "Watcha doin?"

"Training" He said throwing a high kick that would've felled an ordinary man "Need something to do to pass the time until that boat comes in" He threw a series of punches followed by a quick elbow, then a feint with his right fist followed by a quick head butt.

"Um" I said "I guess you wouldn't want to do something else?" He stopped his routine, and looked me in the eyes.

"Depends. What do you want to do?"

"I was thinking maybe a walk along the piers something like that" He seemed to think about it for a moment then smiled.

"Sure, just let me get a shower first" He walked into his bathroom and I heard the water turn on. I walked out and waited outside his door. He came out wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a trench coat. I saw the bulge of a pistol under it.

_**-----------------------------------x------------------------------**_

We walked hand in hand down the piers looking at the waves. It was a grey day from what I heard the forecast was calling for rain. We sat down on a bench facing the ocean. We could hear the surf it was peaceful.

"So, how's Amanda?" I asked.

"She woke up a while ago, delirious, Ian took her temperature, and it was 102. If it gets any higher he'll have to break it"

"I didn't hear anything about fever on the list of symptoms, so what's going on?"

"Lowri says the virus hadn't been tested in humans so there was likely to be different symptoms than expected" I could hear the worry in his voice. I gave him a peck on the lips.

"Don't be a worry wart" I said smiling "I'm sure she'll be fine. Erik…. and Ian will come up with something. Once we get down there we'll figure something out"

"God I hope so, I need Amanda" He suddenly looked like he had said a dirty word "I mean the team, the _team _needs Amanda" I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

"Look!" I whispered. We both saw the same thing. One looked like the scientist that we had killed (or thought we did anyway) back at Timino the other was a man I didn't recognise. "Follow them?" I asked. Robert nodded. We kept ten feet behind them (twice I had to stop Robert from getting too close) after about ten minutes they sat down in a gazebo we creepy closer. We hid in some bushes near the gazebo. We were in hearing range.

"…should be complete by next week" The scientist said. The other man who had a British accent spoke next.

"Is there a cure yet?"

"We don't need one"

"But you have the resources?"

"Yes, if we need to make a cure we can, but we don't need to"

"Good, then I guess that's it then. Soon this will finally be over" Robert looked overjoyed at the prospect there might be a cure. The two men got up and left. We waited awhile and left ourselves. When we got back to the Crows Nest I saw Jade outside the door.

"Where have you been Robert?" She asked. She looked scared "Amanda's getting worse; Ian wants to take her to a hospital"


	19. Fear

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

"No, absolutely not!" I said "Ian we can't do that"

"Oh yes we can" Ian said. He picked up one of the phones and started to dial 911. I pressed the hang-up button.

"Amanda cannot leave this hotel!" I said. Ian turned red.

"Are you trying to kill her? Is this one of your fucking 'sacrifices'?" I tried to stay calm, but I don't like people opening old wounds.

"Ian, look I know you want to help her, but that's the main reason she should be as far from a hospital as possible, the Yeerks know that she's been hit with the dart. They're going to have people watching for symptoms of the virus. If you send her to a hospital she may be killed or worse…" I saw it in his eyes that I had got to him. He looked ready to cry.

"I can't… I can't just stand here, what can we do?" He looked over at the bed where Amanda had fallen asleep. I looked into his eyes.

"We can get to that lab, infect Visser One and force them to make a cure, then we come back, get the cure and she'll be back" I heard a knock at the door. Becky, Jade and Robert stepped in.

"What happened?" Robert asked. I answered since Ian seemed to be trying to console himself.

"Her fever reached 106" I said "We had to give her a cold bath to break it, now she's sneezing and coughing badly, she's lost a lot of fluids, Fred's out trying to get some water and Ginger Ale for her, but I'm afraid we'll need an IV because I don't think she'll be able to keep anything down…" Suddenly Amanda jumped up, leaned over the side of the bed and vomited. Becky made a face.

Jade ran over and patted Amanda on the back.

"I'll get something to clean up with" Robert said and left the room hurriedly, Becky followed him. Amanda stopped vomiting and groaned.

"I feel like I've been thrown in a dryer on full spin, with a few bricks tossed in for good measure" She said managing a weak smile.

"You'll be ok" Jade said "Just hang in there; we'll have you back to normal in no time" As if on que Karen walked into the room.

"Boats in" she said.

_**--------------------------x---------------------------**_

**Fred**

I was on my way back to the Crows Nest with supplies for Amanda when the ship came in. I dropped off the supplies quickly and ran out to where the ship was unloading. Acquiring the animal was easy, each of us had to carry the fish (which had its fins and swords cut off) onto the scale. The unloading process took about two hours. Some of the fishermen had big smiles on their faces; it had been a good voyage.

I wanted to make sure I had gotten the DNA successfully so I stepped into a bathroom at the pier and focused on the fish. I felt the changes begin so I reversed them apparently I had acquired the animal successfully.

That night at the Crows Nest the fishermen went wild. I almost got drunk off free drinks brought by the crew, almost; I know when to call it quits. I walked over to my uncle.

"Hey, I need a favour" I yelled over the music.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Can I borrow your boat?"

"Sure, I'm not using it anymore this season, you remember how to pilot it right?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure" I said. My uncle had taught me how to drive a sword boat when I was 10.

"Why you want it, trying your luck fishing?"

"Something likes that yeah" I said.

"Ok, I'll get you the key" He left the bar for about ten minutes then he came back holding a key ring.

"I order from end to end" he held up each key "Wheel lock, engine, cabin and helm" He said "You bring it back in one piece now ok" He said handing me the keys.

"No problem" I said "I'm gonna turn in we need to leave tomorrow"

"Wow, that's pretty soon"

"Time is money" I said as I left. I went into my room got the supplies I got earlier. I went to Amanda's room. Ian was there holding her hand. Everyone else was standing around waiting to see if I had got the keys.

"Room service!" I said "How are you doing?"

"Just took my medications, so I can get off the toilet for ten minutes now" Amanda said.

"That's good" I said "You just keep drinking that drink I made you and you'll fell better, it's my moms old recipe, anytime I got to sniffling she gave me a shot of that, I haven't been sick a day in my life because of it"

"What'd your uncle say?" Robert asked, and I resisted the urge to deck him.

"I got the keys so we can set off tomorrow"

"What do we do when we get there?" Jade asked.

"We need to see if they have a cure" Erik said "Based on what Robert and Becky told us it isn't possible but we need to look anyway, so we're going to split up into teams of two. Fred will be staying on the ship to keep it safe. So it'll be me and Jade, Becky and Robert, Ian and Karen. The second goal is to get a sample of the virus and infect Visser One. The best way for us to do that is to try and act like we work there

"Once we infected Visser One we'll need to get out of there fast, we will regroup at the entrance we came in at. Ian can you have your friends monitor the Yeerks to find out when they have a cure made?" Ian looked up from Amanda.

"I hope so" he said. There was a knock on the door. I opened it the length of the chain. It was one of the bartenders.

"There's a guy on the phone for Jade, says he's her boyfriend" Jade walked up "Jade are you in? He seems flustered want me to tell him you're not here?" Jade shook her head.

"No, I need to talk to him anyway" She followed the man out. Making sure no-one saw Amanda.

"That's all" Erik said "Everyone get some sleep, we need to be up and at 'em by 2am"


	20. Broken Angels

_**Chapter by LilManiac**_

**Jade**

I took the call in the storage room behind the bar. The bartender, a guy that looked only a year or two older than me, smiled at me and left. I put the phone to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Jade? Oh thank god. I got your little message on your pillow. What's happening?"

I nearly cried from hearing Marco's voice again so soon, but I took a deep breath and kept control. I'd left him a small letter, since he was the only one I knew of that could get into a locked room. It simply told him our team was on the move, and we'd talk to them soon. I'd also given him this motels phone number, so I could tell him when the time came…

"Amanda's…" I stopped myself from blurting out the whole story to him "Amanda's a bit sick. She's contracted a mild flu. Nothing as serious as it could be"

"Ah" he knew, I couldn't say anything without risk of being overheard, or the phones we were using being bugged. I held the phone tighter in my now sweaty palm, trying not to shake.

"Marc- Mark, there's something else"

"What. Did you…"

"Yeah. It's… I… I am" There was silence from the end. The silence that can be deafening.

"Look, I'll… I'll tell you everything when I get back. It's… it's a nice holiday we're having…"

"Jade, stay right there. I'm coming up there to…"

"No! Stay where you are. Stay safe. Lord only knows if… if we don't… I'm sorry, please don't hate me. I… I love you"

"Jade, don-" I placed the phone gently down on the receiver. My hands were now visibly shaking, and for some reason I was having a hard time breathing. Was I hyperventilating? I couldn't tell.

Suddenly everything just seemed so overwhelming. It was too much! I… I had to get out of there! Had to get away…

Before I knew it I was pushing through the crowd of drunken fishermen, then out the heavy front door of the motel. I ran blindly, tripping, stumbling over my own feet. But I couldn't stop; I just kept going. I finally collapsed in a thicket of bushes close to what I thought was a gazebo in my made haze.

_Get out of there!_, my mind screamed, _Shift! SHIFT!!_

So I focused my mind on the only bird I knew that wouldn't look out of place; the seagull. I shrunk, and this time I couldn't control the shift as neatly as I knew I could. One wing came in, then the other. My head distorted and my eyes moved to the sides of my head. My ears vanished, and my legs turned small and spindly. Finally, feathers erupted from my skin, and I took off the moment I was done.

I flew, up and over the motel, now flapping away blindly. I didn't know where I was going; I just flew. To anyone on the ground I probably looked like a drunken bird. But anyone else…

_Too much! Too much!_ My mind repeated over and over in my head, until the words lost all meaning, and became a jumble. I was weak, I was…I was…

I flew for god knows how long, before my wings, which I'd been flapping non-stop, gave in on me and I fell, down towards what looked like a sandy beach. I hit the sand, unable to move for a full five minutes, before I shifted back to myself. I was now human, on my hands and knees in the sand, heart pounding, back arched and my hair falling all over my face. I'd forgotten to shift my hair tie in it, and now it was a dim memory. The smell of the ocean was all in my nostrils, and I heard the waves crashing far off on what was probably large boulders of rocks.

I tried to get up, but ended up sitting on the beach instead. I looked left and right, realising I hadn't checked if anyone had been watching me, and cursed myself under my breath. I put my head in my hands, curling my legs up against my chest, just wanting to bawl. But… even with my head in my hands, not a single tear came. It was just too much. Amanda getting sick… Marco and the others… Glass Dagger and their 'methods'… I just couldn't take it anymore. Having to fight for the human race for so long… nine years… and now, I didn't even have Amanda to talk to. I needed Amanda, she was like my sister….

"You know, you took a big risk out here"

I jerked my head up to see Erik, of all people, staring down at me. His face was unreadable.

"Whoa… what are you doing here?"

"I followed you. You seemed upset, and… well, you did a stupid thing shifting right near a gazebo where a couple were making out. And now too"

"Yeah well… what business is it of yours? You don't…" I choked on my own words. He didn't know what? Pain? Well, his scar was enough to prove…

"I know that whatever happened with you and your 'boyfriend' sent you over the edge"

"It's none of your business!" I snapped, getting up and looking straight into his eyes. Well, as much as I could with him being about seven inches taller than me…

"I never said it was. I was just worried"

"You… worried?" I stepped back, nearly tripping over my own feet. Erik took my arm to steady me, then let go when I was sure-footed enough.

"Yeah well… I have to pay you back _some_how for saving my life. What was it you called it again? Mimic?"

"The game was called Copycat"

"Yeah? Where'd you learn it?

"Ian. Eight years ago. We… he trained us. If it weren't for him, the girl you see today wouldn't be here" _And neither would her passenger_, my mind added.

"What else did you learn?"

"Self defence. All kinds. Even learned some moves from Ian. Then there's… my ice skating"

"You ice-skate?"

"Used to. Had to give it up because… because of this" I sat down, deflated, and Erik sat beside me in the sand. We both looked out into the ocean, silent for what seemed like forever. But this silence seemed… comfortable, almost.

"I'm sorry about Amanda" Erik began "I know she means a lot to all of you"

"Don't be sorry. Amanda's stronger than she looks. She has a pure heart. Well, as pure as you can get in war. She couldn't do anything to intentionally hurt anyone else. She's… well, she's the thread that holds all four of us together. We all love her differently. Even Robert, I can assure you that"

"Even Robert? But…"

"Amanda and Robert have connected in a different way. It's not… love, exactly. It's something else. He's her strength when she needs it, and she reminds him what it's like to be human"

"How… do you know all this?" I looked at him and smiled.

"You can hear amazing things if you just learn to listen in the right ways. I guess you could say I have a talent for seeing what other people tend to miss. Well…" I blushed a little and looked back out to sea "Ian says that. I guess in a way its true sometimes"

"So… the Black Angels are all bonded in one way or another"

"Yep. It's what makes us strong. We fight together… we fight like one being"

"Hmm" he seemed to be letting this sink in for a moment.

"And… I can tell you and yours are too"

"Me and…?"

"Your team. Sorry if it made it sound worse than it really is. But… you guys aren't that much different" I said, remembering for a moment the way they had tried to use Robert and having a flash of anger. But I remembered what was past was past, and there was nothing I could do about it. Just like Amanda…

"Wow, I think I've underestimated you"

"Well thanks for the compliment" We fell silent again, and I took that time to get my emotions under control. For Amanda's sake…

"So… is your boyfriend a Black Angel too?"

"Uh- no. He's not a shape-shifter"

"So what does he do then"

"He fights for the human race in his own way" I sighed, then smiled at the thought of Marco. He used to make me laugh, and how we'd try to outsmart each other every now and then… just to see who could…

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"Trust me. It's nothing you'd want to know about" I said, then getting up and brushing the sand off the back of my jeans.

"Ready to go back?"

"Yeah. Uh… sorry if I kept you up or anything"

"Don't worry. We've got three _long_ days ahead of us. I'm sure we'll both be able to sleep then"

"Uh-huh" I thought of Amanda again. Leaving her here… to die?

No. I wouldn't let that happen, I decided. Erik gave the all clear, and began to morph to the buzzard he'd apparently followed me here with. I shifted to seagull, knowing there was no way I'd ever let Amanda die.

Over_ my_ dead body…


	21. Into the sea

_**Chapter by LilManiac**_

**Ian**

Most of the last night was spent with Amanda, by her bedside. I didn't want to leave her until I absolutely had to. For the most part, she slept all right. But there were times… she'd be sick in the bowl we'd given her, or she'd wake up screaming. Bad dreams haunted all of us. Blood, death… the screams of lives being shattered…

I managed to send a coded transmission to Lowri's ship, which wasn't far off from our current location. At one thirty that morning, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find a young woman there. Curly strawberry blond hair, blue eyes… it was Rally. Or, better known as Rtaia. Her human name was Rally. I don't know why she picked that name. Yet… it seemed to suit her human form.

"Ian" She said, coming and hugging me tightly. Then she moved away from me, and came inside. She set her little bag down, which was filled with some healing herbs and other 'gadgets' as Jade liked to say, and went over to stand next to Amanda on the bed. She placed a hand on Amanda's forehead, then took it away.

"She's still sweating" Rally observed.

"The symptoms are erratic. We don't know…"

"I will take care of her while you are gone, little _Senaad_. I will make sure she is as comfortable as possible"

"Thanks Rally. I appreciate it" I said. Half an hour later we had our bags packed, and all met on the pier.

"Is Amanda…"

"Still asleep. Rally's gonna take care of her while we're gone" I explained, and Jade gave me a little hug. I smiled down at her. I knew her heart was breaking too…

"Rally? Who's Rally?" Fred asked as he led us down to his uncles boat.

"Rtaia. She's a Chanaiben, of course. She might be able to help Amanda more than any of us could" I said as we boarded the boat. We set our bags down in the small cabins, located in the lower deck, then went back up. We stood or sat, watching as Fred took the boat out into the bay, then out into the ocean. He instructed us on this and that, like getting the anchor up (Robert and I managed to do that) and to check the compass. We were heading in the right direction, according to Erik.

I watched in a daze, later on as the sun began to peek up over the horizon, and how Jade kept running to the side of the boat to throw up. Along with her protests to 'slow the damn boat down'. But she knew that wasn't possible, and Becky soon took care of her. Robert sent me a look of assurance as he headed just outside, with the swell spraying up over the boat from time to time. It was amazing.

"So, this Rally character… what can she do for Amanda?" Fred asked.

"She's a natural herbalist on our planet. She might be able to infuse some plants from our planet to keep Amanda more comfortable. She can't… help her get better…" I broke off. The image of Amanda lying so pale and clammy on that bed was painstaking enough. Knowing she could die… it was ripping me to shreds. Outside, I heard Becky talking to Jade as she chucked over the side again, and Robert mumbling something under his breath.

"I think I've got something for seasickness in my medical supplies. Erik?" Fred queried, and Erik nodded and went downstairs. Seconds later he came back with two tablets, and a fresh glass of water. The boat rocked a bit, but Erik managed to get it out to her. I stuck my head out the door and watched as he gave them to Jade, who thanked him and took them eagerly.

"What's wrong? Still don't trust us?" Karen asked nastily.

"No. I was just checking if Jade was all right. She's been sick a lot lately. Nothing like on the fights in space"

"Maybe she's just seasick. Lots of people are" She said, although in a much gentler tone. I guessed she understood in a way what I was going through. She'd nearly lost Erik two nights before.

"I guess… you're right. That's still another human trait I'm still having trouble figuring out" I said honestly as I ducked my head back in and began to pace. I was becoming restless. There was no way I would last three days like this. By the time it was 'mid-day' I was sick of it. Jade was better, and seeming to be able to keep food down, which was a good thing. For a short time I believe that she too had contracted the virus, but… I was wrong. Jade would tell me straight out of something had hit her. She wouldn't try to hide it.

So, the first day we were all restless. Uneasy. We took turns at the wheel, believe it or not, so Fred could have a break. I found steering the big beast of a boat was relatively easy; nothing like piloting a Chanaiben fighter, _or_ a cruise ship like Lowri's. When my 'turn' was over, I went back down to the lower decks, and into my new room. I changed out of the clothing I had been wearing ever since we discovered Amanda had the virus, and into a grey t-shirt, and dark jeans. I was still getting used to the idea of human clothing. I was used to the clothing itself, mostly because Amanda had introduced me to the world of 'clothes'. After Robert had introduced me to a pair of shorts and a shirt he let me take. But Amanda…

We got together when we were at the human age of fourteen. We had sort of asked each other out, two months after the final fight with the Terinans. I had grown to love the human girl Amanda; she took away all the bad things that had happened and instead replaced them with good memories. This was not pity; I knew that from the start. She never treated me like I was apart from the human race. She treated me like I _was_ a human. And, to some extent, I was. Half my life I had spent around them, and I had picked up on a lot of human manners and ways. Such as kissing. I enjoyed kissing. Our way of 'kissing' was quite complicated. Kissing Amanda the very first time… as a human… had been mind blowing. Holding her was a blessing. But… we had not gone to 'third base'. No, Amanda didn't want it that way. Neither did I. We shared a room, and a bed, but when I slept there, it was as my true self. Not the human named Ian. The way I was now…

A knock on the door made me look up from what I had been doing. I gave the ok to come in, and Jade stepped through the door. She still looked pale.

"Are you all right?" I asked patting the bed next to me. She sat down, trying to smile but not quite pulling it off. I put my arms around her and hugged her.

"Ian, I… Amanda's…"

"She'll be fine until we get back" I assured her, although I didn't quite believe it myself. And what was worse, was that Jade saw straight through me.

"I'll kill every filthy Yeerk before I let her die" Jade said, a sudden menace in her voice. I knew she was telling the truth.

"Agreed" We sat in silence, just hugging each other in assurance, before she let go to look up at me.

"Ian, I have to tell you something"

"Is it about Marco? Because I know it was him last night"

She hesitated, then looked up at me and nodded "Yeah. Look, don't think differently of me but… but I…" She trailed off and touched her stomach, and I knew what she meant.

"You're pregnant? Yeah, I guessed" She looked shocked, but then nodded at me again, smiling a little.

"How'd you know?"

"You're not the only one that watches and listens. Becky and Amanda have been protective of you ever since the day we made the plan to come up here. I couldn't understand Becky's sudden interest in you, but Amanda…"

Jade laughed "She's like an open book at times"

"Yeah. But it's ok. Thanks for telling me"

"You… you're not mad?"

"Why would I be? You're like a human sister. Also, I think we're going to need all the help we can get. You up for it Jade?"

"Yes, yes I am. Anything for Amanda, and…" she touched her stomach again, and I could tell she was getting used to the idea.

"Are you… keeping it?"

"I… I don't know yet. A part of me wants to, but… another says I can't. This war… Marco… you know?"

"Yeah, I do. Now go get some rest. I need you in top form, and worrying and not eating is not going to help" I hugged her again, tightly this time. She returned it, both of us knowing that we'd do what it took to get Amanda back. No matter what.

_**-------------------------------------x-----------------------------------**_

**Robert**

The next two days we were all on edge. No one could get away from one another, and that just made it worse. I nearly had a fight with Fred again, but Erik and Ian managed to break us up before it got as far as last time. Fred accidentally punched Ian when he was lashing out at me, and had to apologise after that. But Ian was in another world entirely, and told me the next time I did something that stupid again, he'd show me why I didn't want to mess with him as a Chanaiben. It was a direct threat from him, which was not what I was used to hearing. But the thing with Amanda had sent him overboard. There was a darkness behind his eyes now.

Becky and Jade did their best to keep us all in high spirits. Jade made too many jokes that I knew Marco probably would have made (and complained later to me that she'd been around him too long) and Becky's peppy air seemed to lighten the mood a bit more. I knew Amanda could have done something simular. Amanda had always been good at that. She worried a lot, but she also knew how to hug people and dance around and laugh. Her laugh used to make us all want to laugh. But without her… it was like the Black Angels heart had been ripped from the body.

I stood outside that first night, letting small sprays wet my face, and wake me up a little. The moon and stars were beautiful. And peaceful. The calm before the storm.

"You trying for a _Titanic_ scene Robert?" Came the sweet voice, and I turned to see Becky join me on the front of the boat. I helped her up when she nearly tripped, and she took my arm when she was next to me. I guess she didn't like the idea of taking a dunk in the water as herself. We stood there for a moment in silence, just letting the scene sink in for a little.

"I was trying more for the sinking boat scene in it. You know, when the boat split in two?"

"Wait, you actually _watched_ that movie?" Becky sounded surprised.

"Not really, but I knew the real _Titanic_ split in two when it was sinking. How since almost every bulkhead in the ship was ripped open, that in turn started it sinking. How the fact that they were speeding through the water to get somewhere early cost them thousands of lives. Boats were understocked and sent out…"

"Wait, how do you know all this if you didn't watch the _Titanic_?"

"Facts. I used to be fascinated by the _Titanic_ and her sister ships, and how they sunk, when I was about fourteen" I said sighing. I smelled the salt air, and remembered the night with Becky. The perfect night. And nothing was awkward anymore. She actually enjoyed my company, as I did hers. The walk on the piers, before we tailed the two men, had been one of the best experiences. It reminded me of watching when Amanda and Ian had walked off by themselves on day. The smiles on their faces… they loved each other.

But did I love Becky? That was a difficult question. I didn't really know what love was for me, or how long it took… I definitely felt something for her, that was sure. A warmth, and maybe a bit of desire… but… no, nothing like love. Still, I could learn to love someone who had taken the time to treat me like I wasn't a burden. Like I was a… what was the word? Boyfriend? I think that was it.

We stood there for a little longer, and I knew Fred was probably watching us. So I helped her back down to the side of the boat, then followed her. She shivered a little.

"It's cold out here. How long have you been out here?"

"About an hour, I guess" I shrugged, looking at my watch and realising it had been longer.

"Oh! Aren't you cold?!"

"Hmm… no, not really. Are you… do you want to go back inside?" I indicated to the door. She shook her head.

"Not unless you're coming in too" She said, shivering as she said this. I put my arms around her, unable to resist the temptation anymore.

"I think you should. You're shaking like a leaf!"

"Not until you come in" She insisted, and I couldn't help but laugh at her.

"All right then. Are you warm enough?"

"With you here? Yeah" she snuggled into my chest, her arms going around my waist tightly. It felt nice. To be wanted this way. I wrapped my jacket around her shoulders, rubbing her back to try and keep her warm.

"Good to hear. Now let's get you inside before you freeze to death" I led her inside, where Fred gave me death stares. Becky let go of me and went over to talk to him. I went back downstairs, remembering Ian's warning. No more fights with the Glass Dagger team. The look in his eyes scared even me.

We had a storm the next day, which rocked all of us. We went to bed on the second day, a little worse for wear. Early the next morning there was a knock on my door. I'd been having an unusual dream about drowning. Whoever was at the door had woken me up at just the right time. I went and opened the door to find Becky there.

"Mind if I come in? I couldn't sleep"

"Sure. It's a bit small in here though"

"I don't mind" She came in, and I shut the door.

"So… what's up?"

"Nothing. Just couldn't sleep. I thought… I could stay with you tonight"

"You… worried about when we get there?"

Her smile was gone, and she frowned and nodded.

"Yeah. We're going in… deep, and if we can't find what we're looking for…"

"Amanda, and in fact all of us, are dead. Yeah, I know too" I sat her down on the bed, and sat beside her.

"And… you're not worried?'

"Yeah, I am. It's just I don't think about it until it actually happens. The Terinan war taught me that, as well as my fathers…" I stopped myself before I could get any further.

"Your fathers what?"

"Never mind. It wasn't important"

"You sure? I mean, if you want to talk…" She was smiling again, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"More than sure. Now, let's try to get some sleep; I'm sure Fred will try and rip into me again tomorrow, and Ian and Jade don't need to see another zombie Black Angel…"

Becky giggled and looked up at me with those amazing eyes. In the dim light, she was even more beautiful than before. It took my breath away. And if I had the guts to, I would've told her that. Instead I said,

"Now lay down on the bed. I'll be here for you"

"You're not sleeping?"

"I am, just on the floor"

"But… stay with me. And… the bed might be…"

"If I do that, I'll be tempted to… and I don't want to hurt you"

"You won't. I don't want you to turn away from me. The first night we… it was the sweetest night I ever had"

"Really?" I was surprised. She nodded, smiling and putting her arms around me.

"You didn't hurt me. And you wont" She leaned up and kissed me gently on the lips. I responded, the need growing in me. The fear as well.

"All right then. But… just because we're going into certain danger" I said smiling down at her "You get a free pass for that"

"A pass?" She laughed at me, and then kissed me again. We lost ourselves again, unable to keep the need in both of us away.


	22. The lab

**_Chapter by gpshaw _**

**Karen**

It was easy to drive the ship; it was almost completely automatic the only thing necessary was to make minor adjustments in the course to keep us heading in the right direction. Since my shifts at the wheel were short I was able to spend more time getting to know the other team better. Ian seemed to be a respectable leader. He was more like Erik than he seemed to be at first. Jade was just a nice girl, she seemed to have an inner strength that I knew would be useful.

Robert and I were still at odds, although not as much as he and Fred were (I had a feeling that we hadn't seen the last of their fights) and the fact that he was now hanging around Becky sure didn't help things. Early on the third morning I spotted Robert and Becky walking hand-in-hand back to Becky's cabin. After they kissed and Becky went in I walked up behind Robert.

"Hi" I said. Robert jumped.

"What the fuck?! Oh for Christ's sake Karen you scared the hell out of me" I didn't change the serious look on my face.

"Robert, we need to talk" I said in a tone of voice I'd learned from my mother, it was very good at unnerving people, more likely to tell you something since they think you already know about "Now over the past few days I've noticed you've taken an interest in Becky, now I don't blame you cause Becky's a sweet girl, and I don't mind you talking to her. Maybe some of her kindness will rub off on you"

"But Robert, I need to tell you something" I put a hand on his shoulder "Becky is like my little sister, ok, we've been friends since the 2nd grade and I love her to death so Robert, are you boning my sister?" I tightened my grip on his shoulder.

"No, of course not now get your fucking hands off me" I just looked in his eyes.

"Good, let's keep it that way, ok?" I let go giving him a threatening look. Then walked off. I went to the stern of the ship and looked at the stars. I was worried about Amanda, Amanda was so much like Becky it was almost like Becky herself was sick (I had long since forgiven her for slapping Erik) I had a bad feeling about the mission. This virus was one of the scariest things ever. It was funny, we could defeat almost anything as a team, we'd done it many times. I myself had taken down creatures twice my size, but our bodies couldn't handle one of the smallest things in creation.

"You ok?" Erik's voice made me jump "sorry" I turned around he had obviously just woke up his hair was standing up all over the place. I could also tell he had been sweating.

"Nightmares?" I asked.

"Yeah" he said "I was looking for you, did you have a shift at the wheel?"

"Yes"

"Ok then, you scared me I went to see if you were asleep and when you weren't there…"

"I'm fine Erik" I said smiling "Come here your hair is awful" I tried to straighten it out, it didn't settle much but it wasn't bad. I gave him a kiss on the cheek "That's a little better" I gave him a hug I felt his heart pounding but the second I touched him it began to settle down "You go back to bed now, ok you need your sleep"

"You do too, we all need it" He said "Come on I'll walk you back to your cabin" _Want to join me?_ I wanted to say out loud then, when Erik frowned and sighed I realised I did "Karen…"

"I know I know, Catholic upbringing, faith helps you with the war…"

"It's not that I don't love you…"

"No, no I understand Erik, sometimes I let the emotions get the better of me" I took his hand and walked with him back to my cabin we parted with another peck on the lips and sat down on the bed. I did understand how Erik felt, sort of, I was a Catholic myself but not very devout, you wouldn't catch me in a confession booth. Erik on the other hand was very loyal to the Catholic Dogma (or as loyal as he could be considering he had somewhere in the neighbourhood of 90 confirmed kills). It made our relationship awkward at times.

It was hard for me to resist forcing myself on Erik. When we kissed I could tell he was fighting hard to avoid going too far. But forcing myself on him would damage our relationship severely and I didn't want to risk a great thing for one night of sex. Yes, there were times when I felt like I would explode if I didn't do _something_ with the sexual tension between us, there were ways of alleviating that feeling (and if you have to ask you're too young to know)

I laid down and tried to get some sleep but it was no use. Anytime I was about to go into battle I was restless ready to get to the violence. It was a trait I wasn't proud of but something I used to my advantage. I must have fallen asleep because an air-horn woke me up. I walked out into the bright mid-afternoon sunlight. Fred was standing at the head of the semicircle of the two teams.

"Karen at last the cycle is complete" Fred began "Welcome to Georges Banks, I've been looking at some of the material Ian's partners gave me and I think I see a way we can get in there. The next submarine going down there will be going down in half an hour, the site it will dock at is directly under us. We need to go into morphs and…"

"If the sight is down there then why can't we see it?" Robert asked indicating to the waters were so clear we could see clear to the bottom of the area in some places.

"Because" Fred said in a nasty tone of voice "The Yeerks have cloaking devices that hide things from the human eyes, do you actually think they would hang a sign down there saying 'Yeerk bio lab here!'?"

"I don't know, but I do know that I don't want to go through all this just to have to turn back. I'll need something more concrete"

"You'll need a fucking…"

"Fred!" Erik warned.

"Robert you do what I tell you, just because you don't the messenger is no reason not to follow his advice" Fred continued.

"We dive in and swim to the lab, once we get in there we need to stay out of sight because the Yeerks will be looking for animals acting odd and will likely kill them without a second thought. When we see the sub we need to follow it in and demorph quickly get out of the docking bay before we're seen, and I hope everyone brought a change of clothes because anyone who's wet will be shot on sight as well

"I'll be circling the area every hour if you need me to get back to this location tell me, I'll be in thought-speak range and will get there fast. Any other questions? Ok then everyone get in the water"

**Erik**

I began my changes during my jump (I don't dive). First my nose grew extremely long.

"You aren't lying now are you Erik?" Becky said jokingly. Scales began to grow on my skin fins appeared as I hit the water just as my lungs became gills (A very painful experience). Once I was fully sword fish I gave swimming a try, it was amazing, the power the fish had. The others were completing their changes too, then another swordfish was thrown in.

(Ok I've got our clothing bags incorporated into my shift) Ian said (But next time you do the whole fish out of water thing)

(Thanks for your help Ian) I said (Ok according to what Fred told us the lab should be a few phathoms down)

(Phathoms?) Becky asked.

(Let's just swim for a while until we see it) We all began to swim but we saw nothing but the ocean bottom. It was still beautiful but not good.

(Where the hell is it?) Robert sneered.

(I have no clue) I said.

(Oh that's just perfect!)

(Robert calm down!) Ian warned.

(Oh come on, don't you see, this windbag of a leader has led us clear across the country to this Godforsaken land, got one of our own infected with the virus, and lead on a seasickness filled voyage on the fucking SS Minnow and for what? The only thing around here is… well I'll be damned…) We saw it all at once, a shimmer and the appearance of the lab.

It was huge, and if I had to guess it was at least the size of a college campus. It was mainly non-descript buildings but a few areas (the living quarters I guessed) had large domes built into them to give a view of the ocean. I saw that the buildings were connected by clear tunnels it was obvious the creators wanted to give everyone a view of the ocean.

We swam to the location that Fred told us to go to and saw that the submarine was moving toward us.

(Ok guys) I said (Get behind it) The submarine got to the lab quickly and each of us swam behind it. Unlike most of the submarines in movies it docked by going into an open space in the lab. I guessed the Yeerks wanted to use the same ship/base docking technology as they did in space. Once we entered the doors closed and the water began to seep out.

The chamber we were in was like a swimming pool, complete with a ladder to the regular lab.

(HUMAN NOW!!) Each of us demorphed quickly. Demorphing quickly is incredibly painful and after we finished Becky had to be led out of the area. We found a closet and ducked into it. There was no time for modesty. I turned my head from the girls while we changed into dry clothes. Once we were dressed I told the group to break up into the teams we had.

"Ian and Karen you try and get into the computer and get some more information on the virus, maybe we won't have to infect Visser One after all. Robert and Becky you two find where the visser is staying and try to lure him to us. Jade and I will search for a sample of the virus, let's go"

Everyone began to leave I put a hand on Robert's shoulder.

"Robert, a word" I said, reaching into the bag Ian had carried for us (He hadn't searched it thank god) I pulled out a pistol "I'm not trying to use you again but I need to tell you that you are at the worst risk for capture. Becky can't be infested but you can, if it looks like you'll be captured do yourself a service" I cocked the pistol "Swallow a bullet"

"Erik!" Becky said.

"Sorry if I sound harsh but that's the way it is"

"No problem" Robert said "I'd sooner die than join these faggots anyhow"

"Good luck then" I let them leave. After two minutes I left with Jade. Jade turned to me, and spoke while we walked.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" She asked.

"What?" I said, confused.

"Swallow a bullet or whatever?"

"Two reasons, one you're with me, I won't let you be captured, and two if you're captured I know you'd need no reminding about what your duty would be"

"Thanks. I guess…" The hallways were a beige plastic, it looked like the interior of a spaceship on _Star Wars_ complete with those sliding doors. There was a map of the area on a nearby computer. It seemed just to be numbered shapes. There was a blinking green dot which I guessed was our location.

"Ooookaayy" I said "Let's see if we can decipher this" I looked for a keyboard, there was none, I reached down to look for a pointer when my hand touched one of the squares, the image changed to show a larger version of that square including other shapes that must've been furniture. Beside it was information.

_Name: War Room_

_Purpose: Briefing_

_Access level required: none_

I pressed the back button and noticed a search option, I used it and typed in (using a touch pad) biohazard storage. Four sections lit up green. I pressed one of them.

_Name: Laboratory 1_

_Purpose: Virus Design_

_Access level required: Level 2_

"Guess that's our first stop" Jade said. We walked down the halls sometimes passing other humans once we reached the door we were looking for I saw a keypad lock. Jade murmured something in French that I knew wasn't friendly.

"Don't worry" I said "I got it" I pulled out a small device that looked like a floppy disk and hooked it into the keypad "Keypad hacker, never leave home without it" I put a few wires together and soon the code was facing me. I entered it and we stepped it. The lights were off until we stepped further into the room and they came on.

It was rows of mostly petri dishes. A few test tubes and that scattered about. I saw a cabinet with a biohazard symbol on it. I thought that would be the best place to start. I reached for the door but Jade did at the same time, so she put her hand on mine. I pulled back slightly embarrassed. Her hands were soft…

"Sorry, you go ahead" I said.

"No you" Jade said also embarrassed "You had it first" I opened the cabinet and began to search.

**Karen**

We found an easily navigable map that lead right to one of the computer rooms. I hacked it with the thing Erik gave me. When we walked in I saw that two scientists were looking at what seemed to be an enlarged image of a virus on the large screen.

"Do we know anything about the infected Andalite yet?" One of them, who was wearing a long lab coat said.

"No, the virus we gave them would've likely disappeared when he morphed" The other bald man wearing a sweater vest said "he's likely back in the fray trying to find a way to get to us. We're very close to having the vaccine ready for the Visser once we do we'll be able to fix our problem"

"But, isn't the virus made to allow us to track whomever was infected?" My blood ran cold.

"No dipshit we cancelled that part, saved us money besides fuckers would be dead soon enough anyway, and I like the idea of leaving their bodies to rot" They both laughed then looked up. I pushed Ian into the shadows.

"Did you hear something" The lab coat man said.

"No, why?" Baldy said.

"Just thought I heard something, maybe I've been working too long…"

"Then go back to quarters and get some sleep, we need everyone here on max alert"

"Why?"

"We pissed the Andalites off, how long do you think it would be before they come after us? This place is not as secure as Visser One wanted it. Most people just assumed its location alone would be enough"

"Ok I guess I will turn in then. See you later" The man left not noticing us on his way out he said; "Hey, don't forget to log out before you go"

"Won't happen" I knew what I needed to do. I told Ian to wait and began to move through the shadows. I used stealth I felt I was one with the shadows, it helped me stay invisible to human eyes. I went to the edge of the shadow when Baldy walked towards the computer he would have to pass me. I dropped into a stance that my dad taught me (he was an Aikido instructor) while the stance was better for throws it would put me in a good position to grab him. The man looked at the screen a while longer then began to walk towards the computer. He walked over and was about to touch the keypad when I struck.

I grabbed him by the throat cutting off his air so he couldn't yell. I also blocked his carotid artery, if I held the hold for long he would die.

"Ok" I hissed "I'm going to ask some questions, I will let go of you in time to answer, if you scream I will kill you got it?" I let go long enough so he could breathe for an answer.

"Yes!" he wheezed.

"How much progress have you made on the virus?"

"The virus is now fully functional we are waiting for a vaccine for Visser One before we begin the release" I cut him off again.

"How far is the vaccine's progress?"

"We'll have it any day now"

"Are there any samples of the virus here?"

"Yes, but only one sample so far"

"Where is it?"

"In one of the labs I don't know which one I swear!"

"Where is Visser One?"

"He's in his chambers"

"Where are they?"

"The west wing of the building, that's all I know"

"Glad we had this little chat, all a bad dream right?" I said. The man stammered yes. And I held the hold long enough to knock him out for an hour.

"Ian can you thought speak in your human form?" I asked.

"Yes I can" Ian replied.

"Tell Becky and Robert where to find the Visser, we should go join Erik and Jade, help them find the virus"

"Wait a minute" Ian walked over to the computer and took a disc from the pocket of his shirt, he typed at the keyboard. He hit the computer "Shit! It's protected by about a million firewalls I can't get in!"

"Then we need to find that virus let's go"


	23. Mistakes

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

The first lab came up empty, it was filled with phages and incomplete viruses, nothing concrete. On the way to the second lab, we were joined by Karen and Ian.

"Good, we can search faster" I said. We entered the second lab. I opened a drawer and saw a gun as well as several darts. I held it up.

"We've got a delivery system" I said "Now all we need is the virus" Ian walked over to me and looked me in the eyes.

"Give it to me" He said.

"Come again?" I asked, not fully understanding what he meant.

"Give me the gun and the virus when we find it, I want to infect that bastard for what he's done to Amanda" I understood then. I, of all people, could understand the need for revenge. I handed it to him.

"Don't miss him now" then I had an idea "This will go faster if you two go search the other lab, Jade and I will finish here, you two check the other one we'll meet back in the first lab" Ian walked out, and at that time Jade's watch suddenly went off. She answered it. Then walked over to me.

"Never thought I'd say this but… Rally wants to speak with you" Jade handed me the watch and showed me how to use it. I spoke into the watch.

"Bishop" I said.

"Erik, thank goodness, I've been trying to get in touch with you for the better part of the day. The water seems to be interfering with the signal. Look, I need to talk to you because I'm concerned about Ithiell"

"How so?"

"It's no secret how much he loves Amanda, and… well… I'm afraid he's letting his emotions get in the way of his logical thinking. Ian told me in no uncertain terms that you were a 'callous monster who had no caring for his team' I cleaned that up a bit but… you seem to be better at making a sacrifice so I need to tell you something

"If you ever think Ian is so caught up in his emotions that he can't control his duties I want you to tell him you are taking control of his team under the _Niflad _system, like the human term Robert referred to as 'War-Time cause 32'"

"I couldn't do that, to take a mans authority is to take his soul"

"His authority would be restored once Amanda's sickness is over, for better or for worse" She shuddered a bit on 'for worse'.

"Ok, I'll do it, but how do I know there will be a peaceful power transition?"

"Ian has trained the others to accept what happens to him, they will likely to obey you, look I need to go the signal we're using has become insecure" The line went dead.

"I guess we need to go now…" Karen said. We parted with a kiss. Jade and I went back to searching.

"So" Jade said "Karen's a sweet girl" I smiled.

"Thanks, I still don't know how I was lucky enough to get her"

"Um, I don't mean to pry into your business, but… I heard you talking earlier today"

"Man and I thought I ship with 5 other people on it would be private" Jade gave a little laugh.

"Look, I didn't mean to…"

"Hey, it's ok" I said "not like I would exactly avert my ears"

"Yeah well I just wanted to say, I think you may be onto something, I mean I don't follow your zeal, but I can see why you want to wait, because you just don't want something to happen, that may harm a life…"

"Karen couldn't get pregnant if that's what you mean"

"You aren't putting your faith in condoms are you? My dad told me pretty quickly that I'd better not put faith in a thin piece of…"

"No, no it's not that, I don't put any faith in thin plastics built by the lowest bidder, which is usually some skinny guy in Hong-Kong… no Karen and I couldn't get pregnant even if we wanted to. Something about our morphing drains DNA from our sperm and eggs, or something like that" Jade's eyes watered up a little.

"Erik, I'm sorry…"

"Hey, it's a small price to pay, I'm willing to give anything up to save this world, but promise me something"

"What?"

"Don't mention it around Karen, ok? It breaks her heart she really wanted to have children, and I couldn't give them to her, and nor could any donor, it's best left unsaid, she's been through enough"

Jade pointed to my scar.

"Look's like you've been through enough too" She must've have a moment of lost depth perception because she ended up putting her finger on my scar.

"Oh, oops" She said blushing "Sorry"

"It's ok" I said opening a cabinet "Hey looky here" I took out a test tube rack with ten test tubes each filled with a dark green liquid that was almost like melted candy. The label read _Corsone virus, Handle with Care. _Jade chuckled.

"We got it!" Both of us ran into the other lab. When Ian saw the rack he grabbed it from my hand and filled the darts. At that moment I heard a thought-speak yelp.

(ERIK! ERIK!) it was Becky's voice, she sounded scared (We didn't find Visser One but he found us. We're trying to chase him to the lab but, he's got a bunch of Hork-Bajir with him we need you to meet us halfway) I was already halfway through my cougar morph.

"Guys we have to… run Becky needs us) Jade became a tigress and Ian went into his Chanaiben form. We ran out of the lab.

(Where are they?) Jade asked then we heard a loud roar, and a salt-water crocodile and a lion came darting around the bend.

(Thank god!) Becky yelled getting behind us. There was a whole platoon of Hork-Bajir heading our way. Ithiell had stepped out of sight and was obviously waiting for Visser One. Karen charged right into battle using her immense moose morph to take out hordes of the Hork-Bajir. She only got a few slashes along the way. The Hork-Bajir that survived her charge fell to me and the others. I pounced and tore out the throat of one of them. Then reared up on my hind legs and clawed at another. The blood's smell must have been travelling because suddenly there were hordes of giant centipedes, Taxxons, charging in. A few ran over the bodies that Karen (who was now fighting a small group of Hork-Bajir) had left and began to eat them. Becky ran and bit one of them in half (inviting the others to eat him as well) Robert joined the fray and soon most of the Taxxons were gone.

Then another group of Hork-Bajir ran in, adding to the ones Karen had to fight. One got in a lucky slash in her eyes, blinding her.

(HELP!) She stumbled and began to thrash wildly.

(Karen!) I yelled. I rushed towards the battle and pounced on the blinding Hork-Bajir from behind. Karen was fighting by feel and getting most of the Hork-Bajir that got close enough to cut her but she had a series of nasty cuts as a result. I moved in beside her and knocked most of the Hork-Bajir trying to attack aside with my paws (slashing up their faces in the process). Suddenly I felt Karen's horns connect with my body, I flew at least ten yards and hit a wall. A flash of bright hot pain hit me.

(Arrgh!) I yelled.

(Erik! Oh god I'm so sorry) I got to my feet painfully.

(That's ok) I charged back in ignoring the soreness and helped Karen deal with another group of Hork-Bajir. Then I saw what we came for. An Andalite appeared.

(You fools!) The voice made my blood (Can you not handle a group of sick Andalites? Must I do everything myself!) He began to change. Robert let out a roar and ran at him.

(Oh no you don't!) He hit the Visser, knocking him down and breaking his concentration thus stopping his morph. At that point several things happened in rapid succession.

A Hork-Bajir ran towards Robert trying to get him from behind.

Becky saw it and ran in trying to save him.

Ian jumped from the shadows and fired the gun "This is for her you big blue bastard!"

Becky hit the Hork-Bajir but got in the way of the dart, it hit her in the eye.'

Ian and saw it and took another shot, this one hit Visser One as Robert held him down.

(Fall back! Fall back!!) I yelled (Let's get out of here!) we all ran, not stopping to think about what happened. Karen had to be guided by thought-speak commands. We demorphed in the same closet we changed in then ran to the entrance hatch. It was flooded so we jumped in and morphed swordfish.

(Fred! Get over here and pick us up!) I yelled.

_**-----------------------------------------x---------------------------------**_

"Erik, I… I'm sorry" Ian said. Once we got on the boat we send a blood sample from Becky to Ian's comrades. It came back positive or the virus.

"It's ok Ian" I said "I know you didn't do it on purpose"

"She… she just appeared and I didn't have time to think"

"I said don't worry about it" Ian had been disturbed by hitting Becky, I didn't blame him from feeling that way but he needed to get a grip.

"How is she?" He asked.

"I've told her to lie down, Karen's with her. She isn't feeling bad now but I'm not taking any risks" The boat shuddered a bit as it began to move forward "She'll likely be feeling the symptoms before we get back"

_**----------------------------------------x--------------------------------**_

Becky's symptoms started an hour later, by the second day travelling back she was vomiting. Her fever stayed at 103 constantly. Ian told me that it was likely the virus in Becky was much stronger, I was worried but I knew I couldn't let it get to me, if I did I would regret it…

Rally called us midway through the second day to tell us that Amanda was actually improving, there was a chance she would recover without a cure. I hoped so, that meant we'd need one less dose. Ian and I spent most of the second day discussing our options.

"They're going to be expecting us, you know" I said.

"I know" Ian said gloomily "We'll have to get in there some other way because they'll be guarding the entrances"

"How secure are the lines we're using to spy on them, is there any chance they could lure us into a trap by saying they have the cure when they don't?"

"Unlikely. Yeerks don't set traps as often as you would think"

"So what's the best thing for us to do then?"

"Well for one thing we'll have to be back here before they make the cure, because if they aren't they'll give it to Visser One and destroy all the records. I saved a sample of the virus and sent it to Lowri but the virus becomes inactive after coming into contact with sunlight"

"How are we going to do that?"

"The best thing for us is to drop Becky off and let her get comfortable and then head back. Once we get back there we need to act like we're fishing, Fred is going to show us how to bait the hooks and all. Once we receive the word the cure is complete we need to get down there"

"How are we going to get in?"

"We'll have to fight our way in. The lab's domes are an easy target we get them to place some explosives and break it open, once we do that we'll have ten minutes to get out of that area of the lab before watertight doors close and trap us"

"C-4, huh" I said "Let's bring some extra and blow the place to hell"

"That's what I was thinking anyway if we destroy this place the chances are the Yeerks will stop their Nobel Prize project"

"I hope you're right Ian" I left the room we were meeting in. Karen was waiting outside. She embraced me.

"Erik, Becky's getting worse. She's shaking all over and…" She started to cry. I patted her back.

"She'll be ok Kare" I said hoping it was true "Calm down you won't help anyone if you're in this state, you need to be in good shape" I told her about the mission.

"Good" she said "I want to destroy the place"

_**-----------------------------------------x----------------------**_

We reached the harbour late at night. Robert and Karen led Becky into the bar, I waited behind with Ian and the others to make sure the ship had no signs of our using it. After we were sure we left the boat. Ian and the others went ahead. I was about to leave too when I noticed Jade was kneeling over. Her hand was on her pelvis.

"Jade are you ok?" I asked. Jade made a thumbs-up with the hand she had on her pelvis. I almost walked off but then I got a close look at the hand in the moonlight. It was covered in blood.


	24. Life or death?

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Jade**

We went back, partly defeated. Now, we had someone else to worry about; Becky had been shot, and was as sick as Amanda. Karen, being like a protective sister, made sure I stayed away from her. It hurt a little, but I understood why she was doing it. One, she was afraid for Becky, and two, I think I'd do exactly the same thing with Amanda. Well, if Ian actually _let_ me. He was even more protective of Amanda than anyone.

When we got the message from Rally that Amanda was getting better, it lifted my spirits a little. I urgently wanted to get back there and see it for myself. Sort of… sort of prove to myself that Rally wasn't just saying that to make us feel better. Then again, I'd never known Rally to lie to us. Not once. No matter how hard the truth was to take.

Strangely enough, I began to feel a little uncomfortable on the second day back. I decided I was just feeling a little seasick, and shrugged it off. I asked Fred for a couple of tablets, hoping they'd kick in by the end of the day.

They didn't.

Instead, it began to get worse. By the time we'd reached the dock, it had gotten almost unbearable. Pain was shooting through me every time I moved, and welling in one spot when I stayed still. We unloaded, and headed for the motel. Ian took my bag, eager to get inside, following the others after we made sure the boat was secure.

As I walked up onto dry land, and away from the dock, it got even worse. I collapsed to my knees, holding where the pain was hitting the worst.

"Jade are you ok?" I heard someone ask through the blinding pain. I gave him a faint thumbs-up, hoping he'd go inside and I didn't have to explain the 'girl' thing to him. I'd read somewhere that even in pregnancy, some women get a light flow of blood. But this… this was definitely no light flow.

I felt the blood on my hands. It had soaked through my jeans, and I could still feel more coming.

"Jade" It was Erik, and he was kneeling beside me, a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm ok" I got out in a pained gasp, trying to focus on breathing through the pain.

"No, you're not. You're bleeding. Did they… did someone get you, back there?"

"No, it's…" I never got out the rest, because at that moment I fainted. I was out cold for a good few minutes, before I heard someone say something about going to the nearest hospital, and I felt myself being carried, before I blanked out again.

I passed in and out, and as far as I could tell, I was in the back of someone's car, and someone else was holding me, telling me to 'hang in there'. I blanked out for a while, and the next thing I knew, I saw all these people's faces above me, as something above moved crazily. There were squeaking wheels, someone saying 'will be all right' then Erik's face, before I faded out again.

When I woke up again, and I mean for _good_, I saw what looked to be the sunrise, peeking through what looked to be a window. As I took in my surroundings, I found out that I was in a hospital room. There was an I.V attached to my right arm, which throbbed like hell, and as I turned my head left on the scabby pillow, I saw Erik on one of those very low chairs they have for guests, head rolled back a little, I think asleep. I also realised I was in a hospital gown, and I couldn't see the clothes I knew I'd been wearing last anywhere as I sat up.

The room had the bare essentials; a bed, a couple of chairs, a bedside table, and what looked like a mini T.V up above the bed.

Panic suddenly struck me like a thousand volts; what the heck happened?!!

I started to freak out, fighting to get out of bed, ignoring the searing pain in my arm as I used my right side to help me push myself up and out. The moment I did…

"You stay right there Jade" I was Erik's voice, and as I turned to look at him, he sat up straight in his chair, his hair sort of going over to one side. Any other time I would've laughed at him. But not now.

"Wh-what happened? Why am I here with… with this" I indicated to the I.V "stuck in my arm?"

"You scared me for a minute. I thought you'd bled to death" he levelled his gaze on my own, looking more serious than I'd ever seen him. Only… this time, it was meant for me. I lifted the sheets up to my shoulders, lying back a little since I'd started to feel dizzy.

"Please… tell me what happened" I begged him, and he put a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Well, after you passed out, I carried you for a bit, not sure what to do with you. I knew you needed to get to a hospital, but I didn't know where that was here. Thankfully, someone picked us up, and brought us here" He suddenly broke out into a weird grin "The funny thing was, everyone thought we were… that you were my girlfriend. I had to keep telling them you were just a friend"

He took a deep breath, and continued "Jade, why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"

I froze. I couldn't help it; I just… I froze stiff. One, for the fact that I felt guilty for even mentioning it to him, and the other… the other because he said the word '_were_'. Meaning past tense. Meaning…

"Jade? Are you all right"

"I didn't tell you because I thought you'd stop me from going down there. And another… because, you said you and Karen…" my words stuck in my throat, and I choked back tears. He smiled sadly at me.

"I understand. You could have told me anyway"

"Well I didn't" I said, then fought to get out the next few words "Is it… you said 'were', and…"

"They managed to save it in time. They got you into the operating room and I didn't see you for a while… they'll get your clothes back to you soon; you bled a hell of a lot though"

"Oh thank god!" I think I started breathing again, holding back the tears that pricked my eyelids "Thankyou Erik. I don't know what I would've done without you"

He smiled, and blushed a little "You're welcome"

Seconds later, someone came through the door, and I heard a faint cry that made me realise I was in the maternity ward. They turned, and I found it was a woman. She came over, holding a chart, smiling at each of us.

"Well well, the patient is finally awake. How are you Miss?"

"Uh… all right. A little dizzy, but other than that…"

"Well, that's just because of the anaesthetic we used on you. You might be a little light-headed for another half hour or so, but it'll pass"

"Oh, ok" by instinct, I rubbed my stomach, knowing that the last month of worrying wasn't for nothing. A month! It hit me like a brick, and all I could do was lay back and try not to feel like I was about to fall off the bed. Unfortunately, the doctor saw this, and she smiled and looked from me to Erik.

"Your baby is fine, you'll be glad to hear. The best we can figure, from talking to your husband-"

"Friend" Erik corrected, looking as red as a beetroot.

"Yes, well, friend then, told us, it seems stress was the reason that you started to bleed. Don't worry though, it's all right now. You just sit there and relax, and we'll come back to check on you in a few hours"

"Oh. Well, all right"

"Is there a number where we can contact the child's father, if… this man… isn't? I think it's important that he's here now"

"Well, he's… uh… out of town" I avoided her stare, before she finally said her final goodbye and left the room.

I looked back at Erik. He was smiling a little at me.

"Well, I guess it's time I called the others; they're probably wondering where we are"

_**-------------------------------------x-------------------------**_

Well, he promised to keep my secret, and I was glad; if Robert or… or Karen knew… well, I guessed the place would go sky-high. Robert, like Fred, seemed to have a habit of over-reacting.

The strange thing was, I felt a little dirty in Erik's eyes now. Becky had told me how he was Catholic, and his strict upbringing meant no… experimenting… until after marriage. It just made me feel a little intimidated, I guess.

What I _did_ feel good about, was the fact that I still had my little embryo growing in me. Or foetus, whatever stage it was at now. I was determined to keep it now, mainly because it meant that I was alive, and there was a future for me after the war. It gave me hope, and that's exactly what I needed now; hope.

Amanda, I found out a day after my bleeding experience, _was_ doing a lot better. She could stand and walk by herself. There was also that ghost of a smile she used to have, and her eyes were coming back to life. But, she still had the virus, we found out. There was no getting it out of her system. If she could morph… well, she couldn't exactly do that now, could she?

She promised that while we were gone though, she'd help keep an eye on Becky. Keep her company and that. I could tell she still had her sense of humour, since she said that talking to Rally was like 'talking to a moving brick wall'. I was glad she was doing better, but I didn't get my hopes too high up.

Rally began to infuse some herbs for Becky, and it seemed to work for her. But just enough to keep her comfortable. She still threw up, and her fever was still pretty high, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. Hopefully with Rally's knowledge, Becky and Amanda would last a few extra days. Just long enough for us to complete our mission.

Karen was by her bedside almost constantly, as was the rest of the Glass Dagger team. Even Erik, strange as it was. According to Ian, he kept trying to distance himself from his team-mates. Heh-yeah, that really worked well for him…

Sadly, before we could go anywhere, we had to one, make sure we weren't followed, and that no-one suspected us. And two, we had to wait for some Danny guy to get us some explosives (Ian had told me about that too). So, while Fred and Erik took off for a few hours, all we could do was wait.

I spent some time with Amanda, and made up silly jokes that, if used on anyone else, would have made them scratch their heads. It felt good to hear her laugh again. Then Robert and I had a deep discussion, not arguing for once. Ian came and agreed with what we were saying, and Ian took off with Rally for a little while. Robert vanished for a while, and Amanda decided to rest some more, so I went outside, into the late afternoon sun. I found the gazebo I'd shifted beside about a week before, sitting on the seats and reading a book I'd borrowed off Amanda. But my head was filled with the conversation with the boys, and I soon found I was reading the same line about five times.

I shut the book and sighed, trying to get my emotions in order.

"Hey"

"Yaaaah!!" I jumped about a mile in the air before I realised it was only Erik.

"Uh, sorry. Did I scare you?" He must've caught my panicked look "Oh, sorry about that"

"Gee, that must be your specialty"

"What?"

"Popping up out of no-where" I sat back down, feeling like my heart was about to explode out of my chest.

"Well… uh… the explosives are sorted. Now we just have to get back there in time"

"All right, just give me a sec…"

"We're not going right away. We leave at three in the morning. Always safer to leave in the darkest part of night" he smiled at me, sitting beside me.

"Well, I must say… you definitely know how to keep a girl on her toes" I tried to laugh, but it sounded like a strangled cat.

"Sorry. The doctors said to try not to stress for a few days…"

"Well, when you keep popping up like that, it's kinda hard…"

"I know, I know. Sorry" He said again.

"It's… it's not your fault. None of it is. In fact, if you hadn't been in that warehouse about a month ago, I wouldn't even be here. And as far as I could see then, you'd all be infected and dead by now"

"What do you mean?"

"Long story. So, tomorrow huh?"

"Yep, tomorrow"

We sat in silence for a bit, neither of us really looking at each other. Then Erik laughed a little.

"You know, what you said about that thin piece of…"

"We never used one, if that's what you're wondering"

"Did you guys… did you plan it?"

I shook my head and laughed a little "No. Funny enough, it was more heat of the moment sort of thing. I hardly ever see him anymore, and the night he came to visit… we both caved…" I trailed off, blushing a little.

"So… I'm guessing you're keeping it?"

"Uh… yeah. It's… I know this is going to sound stupid, but… it's my only connection with the living world. The normal world. It… I might actually have a future past this war, if…" I turned away from him, images of the past nine years flooding my head. The madness of war had stuffed me up even more than I thought it did. I bet I sounded like a freak…

"I… I think I see what you mean. I just wish…" I turned back to him, and it looked like he was fighting his own emotions. It must have been hard for him, and for the Glass Dagger team. They didn't have the choice the rest of us had…

"I'm so sorry Erik. I didn't mean to… I didn't want to…" I didn't know what to say. There was nothing I _could_ say to make him feel better. It was probably ripping him to shreds…

"Hey, if it's a boy, I'll name him Erik after you" the words just spilled out of me. He laughed a little.

"Thanks. I guess"

" _Penser rien le il_"

"Uhhh…. what?"'

"French. Sorry. I like to speak it whenever I can. Not that I know very much" I laughed a little "It's mostly what my grandmother taught me before she died"

"But… what does Pensy…"

"Penser. The whole sentence? Think nothing of it. And no, I'm not putting you on; that's exactly what it means. Think nothing of it"

"Oh" I had a feeling I just confused the heck out of him.

"Well, I'm going to bed. If we're getting up early again, I want to get as much sleep as possible" I got up and went to walk away, but then turned around and gave him a peck on the cheek "And thanks again. You're turning out to be a good friend"

"You're… welcome?" he seemed at a loss. Yup, my French confused him all right.

"Goodnight Erik. And don't worry, we'll get those bastards, don't you worry about that" with that, I walked away, feeling determination well up inside of me. I was going to beat this, no matter what. And perhaps… we'd take Visser One out in the process.


	25. Man oveboard!

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Ian**

Erik had told everyone else that Jade had run off, and he'd followed her. It took him the entire night to find her again, apparently. But her clothes proved differently. It was light, but I still saw the faint marks on her jeans. I honestly wouldn't have seen them if I hadn't been looking. Hopefully none of the others saw either…

Later on, when I was watching Amanda sleep, Jade came in and told me the truth. So, now Erik knew her secret too. This was getting a little out of hand, or so I thought. But then again, Erik found out by accident, and he'd been a good enough person to do what he could for Jade. That, in turn, made me start to respect the man named Erik Bishop. If he could do that for Jade…

After I got back with Rally, who had restocked her herb supply while she was at it, all we could do was wait. Good thing it didn't take that long.

We left just after three, with Rally promising she'd watch over both of them while we were gone. Karen and Fred seemed to be a little reluctant to leave Becky there, but I assured them she'd be fine; Rally was an expert, and did all she could for her patients.

Too bad I knew that even her best wouldn't be enough if we didn't get the vaccine.

We headed off, all of us a little more torn by the whole thing. I hardly saw Jade, since she was almost always in her cabin. Robert and Fred seemed to constantly have it in for each other. Every time I saw both of them in the same room… well, let's just say that if looks could kill, both of them would be dead a thousand times over by now.

It was uneasy with Karen and Robert as well. Then again, Robert always seemed to make everyone uneasy. I guess both of them shared that trait.

It was on the first afternoon that I found that out. I was steering the ship, thinking gloomily of Amanda, when Karen came up on deck with me. She hovered around the wheel where I was, before she said one word.

"Ian"

"Karen" I said formally, turning to look at her.

"This is your fault you know" She said, coming up to a few feet from my face. Her eyes flashed with anger.

I sighed "Look, I didn't mean to hit Becky. It… it all happened so…"

"I know that, but if she dies… I'm going to make sure you never forget what you've done"

"How could I forget something like that?"

"Don't get smart with me, changeling. If she dies…"

"Well she's not, all right! No one's going to die as far as I'm concerned!" I snapped, and she backed off a little.

"How can you be so sure?" She asked softly, looking back out the window.

"Because I don't give up so easily, and if you and your team are willing to give up so easily…"

"I didn't say that now, did I!" She turned on me, bringing her face inches from mine. Thankfully, I'd had this done to me before. I hardly flinched.

"Look, I know what you're going through. I really do. But turning on each other isn't exactly going to help us now, is it?"

She sighed, and backed away. I resited the urge to let out a sound of relief. She turned, and was about to go downstairs, when turned her head to look at me once more.

"Remember, if Becky dies…" She let the threat hang in the air, then made her way downstairs. I shook my head, turning back to look at the relatively calm sea in front of us. I just wished the outside portrayed what was on the inside. Calm, focus…

But Karen had made me loose all focus, and when Robert came to take over, I was pacing like a madman.

"What? What happened?" Robert asked.

"N-nothing. Just… I'm worried, that's all"

"Ah, I see" he took over, and I retreated back downstairs. I checked on Jade, who was reading with her headphones on. I was amazed she'd want to bring a walkman on board, but then again it was her decision. She hardly noticed me as I entered, flipping the pages and bopping her feet as she sung quietly. I shut the door again, with her not even noticing I'd been there.

I was more than worried now. Karen's 'threat' had shaken me up, and made me want to pace. I remembered the talk I'd had with Jade and Robert. Robert was the strategist. And Jade… saw things other people didn't.

I was glad that those two were on my side. If I had to match wits against the two, I'd be dead before I could make a sound.

That thought calmed me, and later that night I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Straight into the nightmares that none of us could get away from.

_**--------------------------------------x------------------------------------**_

When we got there, all of us were eager to get back down there. It was only Robert that said it though.

"I don't see why we don't just go down there and storm the place. Those guys…"

"Robert, it's been over a week since we were last here. And a week is more than enough time to bring more Hork-Bajir to the place, as well as beef up the security systems. We'd be shot to death before we could get within twenty feet of the place" I said, and I could tell the others agreed with me.

"Plus, the vaccine isn't ready yet, is it Ian?" Karen directed her question to me, staring hard at me.

"That's right. The last reports were negative from the others. No vaccine, no reason to go down there and get ourselves killed" I replied, averting my eyes from Karen. Instead I looked at Jade. I saw the determination on her face, and I knew she agreed with me. I also knew she wanted to get down there as soon as possible.

"Okay, here's what we do" Fred showed us, and all of us had our part. I was doing what I considered was the right thing, when there was a shout, and a splash beside me. I looked over in time to see Jade leaping over the side and into the water, shifting to Spinner dolphin as she went.

"What the hell just happened!" I yelled as I ran to where she'd jumped, looking down in time to see her splash into the water, halfway into her dolphin form. Karen was already there beside me. She looked panicked.

"Erik's hand just got caught in one of the hooks! I don't know how… Erik!"

Robert and Fred were soon beside us. Below, there was nothing but the waves lapping against the boat.

"Oh god… are they… did we…" Karen was shocked.

"Jade!" Robert called. There was nothing.

Nothing except the calm waves lapping against the boat.


	26. Many thanks, many grievances

**_Chapter by gpshaw _**

**Karen**

Erik and I had been baiting the hooks when it happened. Baiting the hooks consisted of putting a large chunk of _something_ on a large three-pronged hook that looked like it could catch a whale on it. The hooks were on a wire line that was deployed via a pulley system run by a motor. You had to catch the hook bait and let it go.

The day was beautiful it was warm and there were only a few soft clouds in the skies. I had put on a blue bikini and tried a little sunbathing, anything to keep my mind off what was undoubtedly coming. When Erik asked for my help in baiting the hooks I put on a pair of cutoff jeans and a T-shirt then went over to help him.

Erik held the hooks while I baited them. There was a slight breeze which kept blowing my hair in front of my face. Erik reached over to wipe it away. He smiled.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm scared Erik I really am" I said "You should have seen Becky's face before we left, I mean she looked like she had decided to go _Goth_ and her body was as hot as an oven…" he put his hand on my shoulder, it gave me a little comfort.

"I know, I know, just stay calm Rally's there and whatever she gave Amanda…"

"Erik you know as well as I do that what Amanda got was a diluted sample at best. She was moving around when I saw her, whatever Becky got was a nasty full-fledged virus that is going to _kill _her, oh god…" I had never really let the thought strike me but now it did, like a sledgehammer Becky could die and she would die if we failed. I felt tears coming down my cheeks.

Erik wrapped his arm around me and wiped my tears away.

"That won't happen Karen, I won't let it" I looked up and gave him a soft kiss. I read it in his eyes that he was telling the truth. I heard a whizzing sound of another hook coming down the line. Erik reached out his hand to catch it… he was ripped from my arms. The hook had gone through his hand and he was driven under water, he was out of sight in seconds. I screamed his name. Suddenly Jade ran by me and dove over the side changing into a dolphin. I ran to follow her but Fred grabbed my arm.

"Nothing you can do let Jade take care of it" I was on the verge of panic, I couldn't believe what had just happened. I heard someone yell Jade's name but I didn't care about it. Instead of loosing Becky I might loose Erik too, I couldn't think about that if he died… I would never be able to talk with him, kiss him, hold him… love him.

"NO! NO!" I cried into Fred's shoulder he patted me on the back. Five minutes passed, then another three. If Erik didn't inhale water on impact he certainly had by now. If Jade didn't get to him, then…

"Jade!" It was Robert's voice. I looked over the edge and saw Jade swimming carrying Erik's limp body in one arm. Fred let me go and grabbed a long stick with a hook on the end and held it over for Jade to grab. Erik was hauled on board. He was drenched, he wasn't moving.

"Oh god, Erik…" I ran over to see if he was breathing but Fred stopped me again. Jade was standing over him and began to administer CPR. I heard her murmuring something that sounded like a prayer under her breath. I found myself praying too, something I didn't do much "God please don't take him from me, please don't, please don't, let him breathe, please, please…" I kept murmuring and making offer after offer, then I saw Erik's mouth open and water burst from his mouth. "Oh thank god Erik!" I broke free of Fred's grip and grabbed Erik and kissed him (wetting my clothes in the process) I said a silent prayer of thanks while I held the kiss. Fred kind of shied away then.

I saw Erik still had the hook in his hand. Jade must have bit through the line. I finished kissing him and just held him for a while longer. Jade offered a hand to help him up. Then Ian walked over and said,

"You might want to hold onto something Erik…" Ian walked over and grabbed the hook. I turned my eyes away, then heard both Erik and Jade yelp then turned back. Erik went inside to morph off the wound (and the tetanus). Jade was shaking her hand.

"You know for such a thin guy he's got a grip" I smiled, then gave Jade a hug.

"Thanks for saving him"

"You're welcome"

_**-------------------------------------------x------------------------------**_

**Erik**

After my brush with death I was careful not to get distracted from my job of baiting hooks. I didn't remember much about what happened. All I remember was hugging Karen when I reached out to grab the hook and the next thing I knew I was underwater. I held my breath for as long as I could but inhaled water and before I passed out I saw a dolphin. The next thing I remember is seeing Jade standing over me.

I must have thanked Jade a thousand times. After I had morphed off the wound I ran out and hugged her.

"Thanks" I said. Jade smiled.

"Nothing to it" Jade saving my life had made me fell bad about what I knew I had to do.

_**------------------------------------------x--------------------------------------**_

Before Jade left the hospital one of the doctors pulled me aside.

"Mr Bishop, your wife, or friend or whatever, almost lost her child, now I haven't seen bleeding like that in a long time. What exactly was she doing" I told a half truth I was good at those.

"She was on a sword boat fishing with us"

"Are you going back out?"

"Yes"

"She shouldn't go"

"We can't leave her here"

"Look" The doctor said "that bleeding was caused by high stress on her body. If she keeps up whatever she's doing up she was loose the baby at the least"

"What do you mean 'at the least'?"

"If we don't get to her as fast as we got to her today she could loose her reproductive ability, or even die, you can take her along but she is not to do any hard work, no baiting, no heavy lifting, as far as you're concerned she's an invalid, understood?"

"Yessir"

"Good" he left.

_**-----------------------------------------------x-----------------------**_

So far I had given Jade easy tasks around the boat, she didn't argue but I knew she wouldn't like it when we had to go to the lab, because I wasn't going to let her go. Jade was obviously the kind of girl who doesn't sit aside when others are dying, no war worth their salt could ever do that, but I couldn't risk her having another… incident. It wasn't just her I was worried about, I was worried about little Erik or Erica too. Not to mention Jade's childbearing ability, with what sterility had done to Karen and I, I just didn't want anyone else to go through that.

Sometimes a leader must make unpopular choices and soon my time would come to make one. I had already decided Jade would have to stay above water. I still hadn't made a choice on what I would do with the other members, I kicked myself _you don't talk about your allies like objects!_ I still hadn't decided if I would ask the Black Angels to stay aboard, but it was likely I would, if we died down there then we needed someone to carry on the torch, and if everyone aboard died then the only person with a chance of surviving would be Amanda, and that wasn't a great chance.

Insurance was the key here, and I knew that the Black Angels would have to continue the fight. I made my decision. I got up and walked over to Ian.

"Ian" I said.

"Yeah" Ian began but the watch he was wearing went off "Ian… really?... you're serious?... that's great!... how long do we have?... Ok we'll be back before you know it" He turned off the watch and smiled "The cure is almost made, we are hours away from having a working sample we need to get down there!" Ian called for the others.

"Ian…" I started.

"Just a minute, JADE! ROBERT! Everyone come in!" The others showed up, Ian told the news and the mood brightened. I sighed.

"Erik? What's wrong?" Jade asked.

"Jade" I said "You can't come, we can't risk it" Her eyes went cold but she didn't argue, Ian must have put two and two together because he said,

"Hey, we need someone aboard anyways, don't we…"

"It's not that simple Ian" I said sadly "I and my team are doing this alone"

"What?!" Jade yelped.

"What in the blue fuck are you talking about?!" Robert said "What gives you the authority to…"

"Ian" I said "Do you agree?" Ian didn't take the hint, maybe I was too subtle but there was no time to give anymore hints.

"No" Ian said "I don't agree as a matter of fact I think you might be trying to get down there and find a cure say you did find the cure then use it on that red-haired slut back at the Crows Nest…" Karen charged at him I grabbed her arm.

"No Erik let me at the fucker, I'm gonna kick his ass I'll kill him, don't you _dare_ talk about Beck like that" I held her arm and whispered in her ear.

"Not worth it, he's just worried about Amanda it's not what he means" she calmed down.

"Ian" I said "We wouldn't do that, look I don't want to do this, but I will. Ian, step down and give the order yourself. I want you guys up here to avoid losing the entire force and loosing the war"

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I am not keeping my team up here while you go and steal the cure then leave Amanda to die…"

"Ian, listen to yourself, your relationship with Amanda is compromising your judgment, you have to see past this, you know this is the best route"

"No, I don't trust you, you insensitive fuck, I'm going to be on you like stink on shit!"

"Ian, I'm sorry about this but…" I sighed "Under the _Niflad_ system, simular to War Clause 32 I do hereby relieve you of your leadership responsibilities and will take command of your platoon" Ian murmured to himself a little.

"Ian, is he… isn't that the Chanaiben form of…" Robert stuttered.

"If a leader of a Changeling platoon becomes mentally unfit to lead," Ian began, then his voice took on a venom that I only heard in a human voice a few minutes before a major fight broke out "a person of equal or greater status in another platoon may temporarily seize his authority and control said platoon as his own, you… you complete fucking…" He threw a punch at me, it connected to my jaw, I felt it break. Ian prepared for another punch but Fred caught it.

"Let me tell you the rules you can hit Erik once on my watch but on the second time I make you sorry" Fred twisted his arm and put his elbow on Ian's arm then fell. I heard Ian's arm snap. Robert charged in and hit Fred in the leg with a flying kick.

Fred fell to the floor but turned around and caught Robert with a right hook punch. Robert staggered back then connected with a kick to Fred's head, Fred stumbled but regained his balance and knocked Robert down with a leg sweep. The whole ordeal lasted twenty seconds, and it was twenty seconds too many.

"Enough!" I yelled (I had done a fast morph to fix my injury) "Ian you have your duty unless you want to face a court marshal or whatever you guys do you'll stand down. Now I'm sorry it had to be like this, but we need someone to carry on the fight if we should die"

"I'd rather be dead than live in a world without Amanda" Ian snarled. Karen and I spoke at once.

"Which is precisely why it's happening the way it is" I looked over at Karen, even though I knew the exact same thing Ian had said, and so would she, we both put up an act in order to keep things in control. Ian sneered, and looked at me with a look that I had only seen on the face of those human controllers I had to execute.

"Fine!" he said "Robert, Jade, laws are laws under his command, I assume I am confined to quarters?" Ian said with venom in his voice.

"No" I said "I trust you will obey my orders sir!" I said. I turned to my teammates "Let's go!" We dove in the water wearing scuba gear and carrying the C-4.


	27. Trapped

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

_2: 49:32 _

We had to swim carefully so as not to set off any sensors at the base. We had to get in and out fast. If I had more time I would have brought guns and grenades, but we'd have to rely on battle morphs. We moved to over to one of the domes, no one was in there. I motioned to the others and they followed me. It was dark but the light from the dome made it easier to see.

Karen swam over to the dome her hair flying in the water she planted and armed the charges. We each moved out of the way of the blast then I sent the signal to set them off. Each of us were caught in the inflow current and forced in at a high speed. We each began to enter our battle morphs. By the time we touched down we were in full morph.

Each of us had fast morphs, cougar (me), moose (Karen), cobra (Fred) and made it out of the dome room before it flooded. An alarm was going off.

"Warning, warning, breach in area 2-B watertight doors closing, all officers evacuate the area" Karen went into a blind charge under all of the closing doors. I saw on the other end of the long hallway that we had come into… no time to think the water was heading towards us. We ran, and reached Karen's side of the hall quickly. We saw the doors in the hall we went through snap shut.

(Well we won the first round) Karen said. Something was off, I knew it, there was something wrong, something missing… I ignored it now was not the time to think it was the time to _act!_ We found one of the interactive maps and checked our position, then I realised what was wrong.

(Shit!) I said. There was no-one in the area, no one had tried to fight us. It was a trap, had to be, just what kind of trap was it? We found out pretty quickly the doors to the next area were shut tight, I heard the cold voice of the Visser but it was weak.

(Ah, I promised no mercy) he said (And now I can follow through on it) I heard the sound of doors opening. I expected a horde of Hork-Bajir but instead I heard a torrent of water. Start then stop. (Well) the Visser said (Now I could kill you by filling the entire area at once but what fun would that be?) a door I didn't even know was closed trapping Karen, Fred and I in one place. (There are ten compartments like this ahead of you. I will flood each one every ten minutes by the time it reaches you compartment the pressure will be so great that the force alone should knock you against the wall with enough strength to snap your little necks. How is it you humans say? Oh yes, see you in bell) _Hell, you mother fucker_ I thought angrily.

There was no point in looking for an exit in the small stretch of hall we were in it was over.

(IAN!) I sent out a thought-speak cry (Get out of there NOW! We're trapped down here, run get out of there!) I looked over at Karen's moose form. I did the best I could to give her a look of love from a cougars eyes and she did the same. We had 100 minutes, even if we made it out there would only be ten minutes before we were stuck in morph.

Now that I know this will be the last hour of my life I am sending my last words to a storage bank aboard the ship, to my sister Anna stay strong, you're in charge now, make it count, win this war for me sis.

To Jerry I say, don't beat yourself up, you couldn't have helped me. Amy, I'm sorry about this, first your boyfriend now me, it's a lot to bear but I know you can do it. Jade, you take care of that kid, you hear?

Robert, don't soften up, we need guys like you to fight the fight when others won't. Ian I am sorry about this whole thing I really am, but now you see why I did it, and I am so sorry about Amanda too, but don't do anything stupid, keep fighting on you know it's what she'd want. Good luck.

Erik Bishop leader of Glass Dagger.


	28. Here comes the cavalry!

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Robert**

_2:38: 44_

"You know, getting your arm broken hurts"

"You're telling me" I muttered rubbing my bruised ribs. Damn that Fred packed a punch. We were sitting outside on the boat. Jade was pacing between us, the evidence of a chupa-chup stuck in her mouth. She was rolling around the small plastic tube in her mouth, with her arms folded and her eyes looking like they were somewhere distant. She'd consumed three of those things in the past half hour that Glass Dagger were gone. It was night now, and we couldn't see anything below the surface in the darkness.

Erik had forced us to stay on board. And Ian had nearly throttled him for it. I'd never seen him so mad, or use that kind of language before. I laughed in spite of everything, feeling frustrated and utterly hopeless.

"Ian, you've been hanging around me too long"

"Oh really?" he raised an eyebrow in the moonlight. He'd shifted back to Chanaiben, and when he was calm enough, become human again.

"Yep, you've learnt _way_ too many curse words from me"

He seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, I guess I have. They definitely are useful for something"

"That's it!" Jade snapped her fingers, causing both of us to look up at her.

"What's it?" I asked, seeing her eyes glittering dangerously as she turned to me. In the moonlight she almost looked like a catwoman.

"Oh this is good, you're gonna love this..."

"Jade, just tell us. It couldn't be any worse…" Ian muttered. After all, we'd sort of predicted this would happen. I'd come to Jade to talk to her about Erik, and after she told me what Rally had said, I'd realised Erik could very well use it against us. Ian had come, and agreed with a heavy heart. None of us wanted to believe it; we were becoming close to Glass Dagger (except me and the dick Fred) and we were a little shocked (and quite pissed) that they'd betray us this way. Good intentions or not. Heck, screw good intentions, if they winded you up on a bloody boat in the middle of nowhere when a fight for earth was happening just below the…

"Erik made a mistake. He didn't word his instructions right" She'd taken out the plastic thing, and was waving it around as she talked.

"What do you mean?"

"He never _ordered_ us to stay on the boat. He just said 'I want you guys up here' and that was _before_ he forced you to step down"

"Jade, you're not making any sense. He _took my command_, so there's nothing I can do…"

"Ian, _listen_ to the words I'm saying" She knelt down and grabbed him by the arms, giving me the impression of a wild animal going for its prey.

"He never said anything… well, ordered… about staying on the boat. And there's two other people that can… 'lead'… you'll just 'advise' in a sense"

"Jade, you're a genius!" I bolted up, feeling a sharp pain in my ribs and dismissing it. We had a plan!

"That she is" Ian said, grabbing her arms and shaking her shoulders hopefully. Then he frowned a little.

"You sure you're up for this?"

"Puh-leeze! Do you think I'd risk the lives of billions for one? I've weighed the scales, and I know which is more important. It's a risk I'm willing to take"

"Uh, mind filling me in?" I asked going over to them.

So, they did.

And I swear I almost fainted right then and there from the pure idiocy of it all.

_**--------------------------------------x---------------------------------**_

_2:08: 12_

Ian had prepared us well, and deciding that Jade would 'lead', we tossed ourselves into the water, shifting to sharks as we went. Once in the water, we found we could see a little better, but it wasn't until we passed through the cloak and saw the brightly lit lab. In the dark it looked more astonishing.

And then we saw a shocking sight. One of the doors opened, and water went flooding into the compartment. I heard the creaks and groans as the watertight doors beared the force that had just been sent through from the last compartment.

(Oh my god!) Jade cried, and after a few seconds I found what had made her cry out. At the end of this hall, I could see three animals that should not have been there.

(Fuck! What goddamn idiots!) I snapped, unable to keep it in. They'd been trapped in the first hour, and now there was no-where to go except forwards. Straight into the onrush of water.

(There might be another way. Jade, I suggest I go and get the security cameras to… malfunction… then find some way to get rid of the water)

(Go for it Ithiell. Me and Robert… will see what we can do out here) Ithiell sped off, a hammerhead shark arching through the water like a well-aimed missile. He was heading straight for the docking bay.

(Call us if you need us!) I called after him.

(I will. And thanks for the loyalty back there)

(Just doin my job buddy)

He left, and Jade moved and began to swim slowly and purposefully through the water.

(Just follow my lead. We need to find a place we can break in if things turn to worst)

(Right. Sure. But look, whatever we do, we'll just put them in further danger)

(Not exactly. It'll all depend on timing if Ithiell doesn't get there in time)

Over half an hour later there was still no word from Ithiell. And the water kept getting closer to the three trapped inside. Whether they'd noticed us or not, I couldn't be sure. And Jade hadn't told us anything about contacting them. Oh well. Guess they'd have to wait in fear for a bit longer.

(Two compartments left. ITHIELL!!) Jade screamed, and if I'd had hands I would've covered my ears.

(It's all right. I'm working as fast as I can. I think I… there! I got the cameras out! Now I think… I think it's best if you tell them to demorph and go something with gills. I'll keep working on the water, but it doesn't look good)

(Right, thanks Ithiell. All right, it might be up to us now) She sounded scared.

(What? Worried we're all gonna die? Oh well, tough shit)

(Robert, shut the fuck up!) she snapped, then I heard her laugh (Thanks Rob, I needed that)

I didn't reply, because at that moment another door was opened, and water rushed into the last compartment before them.

(Guys! Demorph and remorph!) Jade yelled.

(Whoa-what the… Jade?)

(Yep, it's us. Disappointed?) I mocked, and I could almost see Fred growling at me.

(I thought I ordered you to stay on the ship!)

(No. No order was given. At least, not after you stripped Ithiell's rank away. And by the way, Ithiell's not in command here, _I _am. And if you want to keep on living, just fuckin do as I say!)

(Holy crap Jade, you kick ass!) I told her privately.

(Thanks) she said smugly as the others began to demorph, and from not far away I saw controllers rushing around, looking dumbfounded.

When Erik and the others were human again, they began to morph their battle morphs.

(NO! Go gills! For the love of… go sharks or something!)

They followed her lead, and I knew time was running short.

(Ithiell!) I called out.

(Almost there!)

(It won't be soon enough! Robert, get your butt on the other side. We're going to smash the glass and equalise the water pressure as it comes through! The time has to be spot on, or we'll fuck it up and kill them in the process)

(Well, I know one of them that should…)

(Robert _NOW_!)

I did as she bid, and we both rested at an angle, not far from the side and making sure I would have enough power behind the force of my blow. Jade did the same, her whale shark form almost an equal size to my own. That was one thing Jade didn't see, and that was what was going to work to our advantage. I made sure she was the same length from the glass as me, so we would charge at the right time. In the dome, Erik and the others were furthest from the door about to open, still only half morphed because if they'd morphed all the way, they'd die in the air. I could only guess what he was telling his troops.

(Nearly there…) Ithiell's voice was desperate.

(Robert!)

(Ready and waiting!)

(Nearly… I think I…)

_Shwooosshh!_

The doors began to open!

(NOW!!!)

I charged! She charged! We hit the glass with the force of two high speed trains!

_CCRRRAASSSHHHH!!!!!_

We broke through! The water pressure we sent through was doing exactly as Jade expected. The two forces hit like a tidal wave, then began to come back and flood the compartment we were now in.

(GUYS!!!) Jade screamed, and I turned to look at the others. As the water hit them. Karen was done, and Erik's hands were just becoming fins. Fred was the furthest behind, and the combination of the waters rushing in was making him choke a little on it. I almost wanted him to swallow enough water and die, but then my reasoning got the better of me. The more people we had, the better chance we had of surviving.

Damn the prick though.

I swam over to him.

(Here, hold onto me. I'll keep you afloat) I said, and for a moment I saw fury in his eyes. But that was soon replaced by an eels muzzle, and he grabbed my dorsal fin with a still forming hand. When he couldn't hold any longer he let go, slipping under the water.

By then, the compartment had almost completely filled up. Then, something amazing happened. The doors to each compartment began to shut again.

(ITHIELL!)

(Don't worry! It's just me! I'm shutting the doors and draining the water out of each one. Get into the one closest to you and when that drains you can go big and deadly)

(I thought you said he wasn't in charge!) Karen yelled.

(He's not! Jade is, and he's advising Jade on her courses of action!) I shot back, and I saw her bear her teeth at me.

(Good idea Ithiell. C'mon guys, let's go)

(But Jade, what about…) Erik trailed off.

(Erik, in the end it's her choice) I said bluntly as we followed Jade into the compartment. The doors shut behind us when Jade told Ithiell where we were. He was still draining the other compartments by then.

(What the… you don't know what you're talking about!)

(I do. I know she's pregnant, but in the end she'll choose what she does. If she wants to help save the world, then that's her choice)

(Thanks Robert) Jade said privately. Only three of us were hearing this conversation.

(I wouldn't do any less. And neither would you) I replied, trying to sound harsh. Damn, being with Becky had softened me up somewhat. Or maybe that was just because I just wanted to communicate with Jade better.

(I wouldn't) was her reply, as Erik started to talk her in leaving the rest up to us, and she refused. Fred and Karen were oblivious to this. The doors in front of us shut, and I heard the water draining from that compartment. Then, it was us.

When I the water was halfway gone, I went to human, and so did Jade. The others demorphed, none of them looking happy at our decision.

"You have no idea what you've done Jade" Erik said, going and grabbing her arm. She yanked it away from him.

"Yes, I do. I just saved your fucking lives, all right? Now be thankful or leave and let _my_ team finish the job you've botched up"

He stepped back like he'd been slapped. I'd learnt from experience you didn't try to stop Jade from doing what she knew she had to do. She could definitely give you a good word lashing when she wanted.

In fact, that's how I felt. How did I ever think I'd stay up there while they did this shit by themselves? I almost wanted to beat the crap out of Fred right then and there.

Instead, I shifted to polar bear, and Jade went elephant. Erik and the others went into their battle morphs, and I had to resist the temptation to go and bite Fred in half.

(All right then. Ithiell? Where are you? We're ready)

(All right. Once I open the doors, keep going until you reach an intersection. Then, go left and then a quick right. I'll be waiting for you. And don't worry, there's still plenty of… friends, outside the door where I am to keep you all entertained. I'm surprised they haven't broken down the door by now)

(Ok Ithiell, hang tight. We'll be there soon) Jade said as the doors opened, and we all began to run.

(Oh man, I shouldn't have sp-) he stopped talking, and at that moment I got a really bad feeling.

(Ithiell?) No answer.

(ITHIELL!!) Jade screamed, and I knew something bad had happened. So we ran, and met the 'friends' Ithiell was talking about.


	29. The worst luck

**Chapter by LilManiac**

**Jade**

I barrelled into the mass of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir, sending them scattering. Karen wasn't far behind, separating heads from shoulders in an instant. Erik slashed a Taxxon open, then leapt away as the other Taxxons made a meal of the injured one. Fred spat and killed Hork-Bajir in and instant, and Robert's size and strength scattered them like bowling pins.

But then I saw the door had been burst open from this room, and inside I saw the human Ian firing a Jara gun into the oncoming mass. Too bad they had their own weapons, and were firing back. Ian ducked, screaming in anger and terror.

(Here comes the cavalry!) I yelled, barrelling into the room, tossing and stomping and impaling them on my tusks. I shook a few off.

Then, I felt something slice my rump.

(Jade!) I heard Erik yell, and behind me I felt something hit my rump again.

(Reversing!) I yelled, backing up as Ian, now Ithiell, followed me out, firing the gun. Soon it was all over, and all that was left was a bloody mess.

Alarms began sounding, and we all tensed up.

"Into that closet!" Ithiell yelled, pointing. He threw the bag he'd carried in his shift, which had their dry clothes in it. Erik caught it in his teeth, and they barrelled into it, demorphing as they went. We shifted back, and I grabbed the little I.D cards Lowri and Talia had made up for us. I tossed one to Robert and a now human Ian, and when the others came out I gave them each one as well.

"What's this?" Karen asked.

"If they think we're not controllers, we're as good as dead. They're wearing these now, so wear them and if we get caught…. well…" I shrugged my shoulders helplessly, looking at Ian.

"We won't get caught if we're careful. The more cautious we are, the better chance we have of getting out of here, alive, with the cure" he said, and I nodded and smiled.

"All right. We do what we did last time. Split up and search. If we can find it before the Visser gets a dose, we can get out of here without another scratch" I said, feeling a little awkward about ordering people, especially Ian, around. But Ian was smiling, so I guess I wasn't doing too bad.

"You heard the lady. Now who goes where?"

"Umm…" I looked around and found a map, and went over to it with the others following my lead.

"All right. Fred and Karen can search here" I pointed "But be careful, ok?"

"What makes you think…"

"Fred" Erik said, and he shut up.

"We will" Karen said.

"Now, Robert and Ian, will go… here. It seems to be a bit far away, so if you need us, don't hesitate to call us. I'll go with Erik to this part, since I think we might have looked there before. All right? Let's go!"

We split up at the right times, and I felt guilty from ordering people around. We passed by controllers who simply gave us a slight nod as we passed. When we found the one of the labs we'd been in before, I whipped out a handy descrambler disk Ian had given me, shoved it in and pressed the three buttons in the order that he'd shown me. The door buzzed and opened, and as we stepped inside I retrieved the disk and put it back in my pocket.

When we were sure there was no one else in the room, we closed the door, and Erik turned to me.

"Jade, you shouldn't have come. You-"

"Oh get off your high horse. Do you really think I'd let the three of you come and do this alone?"

"Jade, that's not what I meant. I-"

"I know what I mean. God Erik, did you really think I'd forget about my… my baby? Well guess what, I didn't. And neither did I forget what you've done for me and… but I had to look at this realistically"

"Jade, would you let me finish a damn sentence?!"

"There, you did"

"Jade!"

"Shut up you twit! Do you really think I'd let the fate of the whole world rest on three people against thousands?! No! Okay!" I lowered my voice, but it still shook with venom "For you and the rest of the world, I am willing to risk even this thing growing in me, ok? I would never stake billions of lives for just one. As harsh as it might be, that's what I believe. I've lived nine years with this shit Erik, so I know what the fuck I'm talking about, okay?"

He fell silent as we began to look for the cure. But I wasn't finished with him yet.

"You're not the only one with the scars Erik. I have four, Amanda has about five, and Robert… he has six or seven, all from risking our lives so others didn't have to face the same horror. The largest one Amanda has is right across her back, and do you know how she got that? From risking her own life to save three others. So, yeah, I've seen Amanda near dead before, and it almost killed us. This time it's worse. And Ian has had it worse. Losing her again… he'll loose himself"

I don't know why I was babbling. I guess I wanted to prove to Erik that I wasn't going to sit around like a good little girl and wait for him or the others to die. But it seemed to work, because he'd stopped arguing with me.

"It's… it's not here. Let's try another lab" he said, and I followed him out.

"I'm sorry Erik"

"I'm sorry too"

And like that, the storm between us was over, and the friendship and trust we'd earned in the past month returned. I just wished Robert could get along with him and Glass Dagger as well.

I thought about the map where I'd sent them all, and realised I'd sent Robert and Ian to the storage bays. True, the labs would be the best place to start, but I had a feeling they wouldn't keep it in one place for long in case of another attack. I think I'd sent Karen and Fred to the crew quarters, but I couldn't be sure. All I knew is we only had so long before the cure was finished, and the Visser would get a dose and return back to his loveable self. Or not.

_**-----------------------------------------x-----------------------------------**_

_1:03:31_

We'd checked the labs, and had come up empty.

"It should have been here! It should have!" Erik was saying as he tossed an empty test tube rack aside, shattering the glass. For a second I had an image of something else, then it was gone again and I shook my head.

"What? What is it?"

"N-nothing. Just a thought. But I was right. They don't trust the cure to stay in the labs anymore, since we breached security with hardly a second thought last time, they know not to leave it in any obvious places"

"Like a lab"

"Uh-huh"

"But… that doesn't make any sense! I thought they were still working on…"

"Erik, the whole damn things an underground lab. Surely they'd have more facilities able to do the work that these labs do, and more"

"Oh. So, I guess we start searching for it there"

"Yeah, well, wherever it is. I'm playing by ear here Erik. After all, I've never really led a team before. At least, not like this. Too large a scale for me"

"I see"

I walked out of the lab, then to a map across from us. Erik followed, seemingly reluctant to follow me. Well, who wouldn't be? I was short, _and _I'd practically just told Erik I was a rookie at leading people.

I scanned for anywhere we hadn't looked yet, and to my surprise I found several rooms slightly smaller than the labs simply marked 'testing' or… something else that wasn't even close to English.

"I guess we start there" I said, pointing. Erik nodded, still giving me strange looks.

That's when the lights turned red again, and alarms began sounding loud and clear.

(Guys! We've been found out! Someone noticed we weren't exactly part of the crew) Karen yelled.

(Robert and I are too far away! We won't be able to reach you in time) Ian called out as Erik and I began our change. When Erik could thought-speak, he called out to her.

(Where are you?!)

(Um… I don't know! We just passed a t-section and went right… then a went through a cross section… does that help?)

(Not in the least) I said as we ran anyway.

(We just passed by the first lab!) Fred called.

(Oh. Other way then) Erik said, nodding his head in the opposite direction as we skidded to a stop, then turned and bolted back the way we came. Five minutes later we found we were running towards a moose and a snake, followed by a lot more guards than before. Taxxons included.

I jumped into the fray, biting and slashing at them, nearly puking as I bit through the flesh of a Taxxon, then jumping away and going for a Hork-Bajir. Erik wasn't far behind, making me look a little tame as he bit of heads and gouged eyeballs out of actual sockets. Karen and Fred joined in, fighting with everything they had.

Everything we had was not enough.

(Gah!) I cried as I was nearly impaled on Hork-Bajir blades, and beside me I saw Karen had picked up quite a few limbs on her horns, and Erik's muzzle was covered in thick blood.

Somehow the battle spread out along the hallway, giving us enough room to be away from each other as we bit and slashed and spat and impaled the Hork-Bajir and what was left of the Taxxons. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw one Taxxon literally eating itself. It made me kind of sad for them though.

Bam! I was down! Stupid Hork-Bajir had just jumped on me, and was holding me down, trying to get his elbow blade around to slice my throat. I broke free, and returned the favour, leaving a deep gash across his neck. And the rest of his face.

By that time I'd lost my tail, and one of my hind legs were gone, an ugly puddle of red forming on the floor beneath it. There was one forming under me as well. The blood was gushing out in buckets.

(I need to recharge! I'm losing blood to fast. Don't worry, I'll be back and kickin ass before you know it!)

I sped out of the path of blades and hungry mouths, focusing on shifting as soon as I had enough space between me and them.

_Too much blood… can't… focus…_

I became human again, unable to keep a clear image of the lioness, my other favourite cat form. I kneeled there for a minute, catching my breath. Thankfully at that time most of the work was done, and as I looked up I saw there were only two or three left for each of them.

Erik finished off his last Hork-Bajir, coming over to me. He was cut in more places than I could count.

(You ok?)

"Yeah. Pretty…ok…"

(Good, cause we need to get-) He was cut off as humans and Hork-Bajir came into view, followed by a few humans.

(No… oh god no…) Fred was saying, but I didn't take much notice to that. I dove to the side as the Hork-Bajir charged, and the humans stayed back to watch. Erik and the others charged back, and in seconds it had become a vicious and desperate battle to stay alive.

I slunk over, then fumbled in my pocket before I found my own Jara gun, firing into the crowd. Seconds later I was in my own desperate battle, ducking an dodging and firing as they tried to fire back at me. I counted that I got about five down, and they had barely managed to singe my jacket.

Seconds later I heard laughter, and I turned to see a woman hovering over an unmoving Erik, a Dracon beam levelled at his head. It looked like his shoulder was smoking.

With hardly a second thought, I grabbed my dagger hidden up my sleeve, aimed carefully, and threw it straight at her. It hit her hand, knocking away the gun.

Before she could turn to look at me, I'd run at her, aiming a flying kick straight into her stomach, knocking her back and far enough away from Erik for me to get control of the situation.

"Why you little…" she cursed, then ran at me, throwing an arm at my face. I ducked it, bringing a fist right in her stomach. She backed off for a minute, trying to suck in a deep breath. It wasn't long, but it gave me enough time for me to back up just enough, kneel down, and pick up my dagger. Then, I held it out as she recovered, staggering forward to stand in front of me.

"You're going to pay for that" she snarled, and seconds later I saw what I'd done to her hand. A neat diagonal slice right under the skin. Must've hurt more than if I'd shoved the dagger right in.

"Doubt it. It's more like you're going to pay for hurting my friend here"

"Ahhhhh!!" She screamed in animal fury, and seconds later her hands had grabbed my wrists, fighting me for the dagger. As strong as I was, this woman was stronger, and seemed to be able to unbalance me faster than I could rebalance myself. To my surprised, as we fought I felt the dagger slipping from my grasp.

Then it was gone, and then there was a cold sharp object shoved into me, with the woman crying in fury and success. I knew where it went in. I felt it.

"No" I whispered, collapsing back onto Erik's unmoving form. I yanked the dagger out of my stomach, looking down at the blood on the dagger, as well as the blood that flowed from the wound. So freely, so…

In spite of everything, and the woman's made laughter, I stood up again, the dagger still in my grasp. When she saw I was up, she looked a little surprised at me.

"What… what…"

"It takes more than a flesh wound to kill a Black Angel. Or don't you know that?" I said smugly, even though I felt my strength draining from me. But I had to keep up my act, or Erik was dead.

Then she started grinning, and I knew what was wrong. She'd pulled out a Dracon beam from a strap at her ankle, and was aiming it at me.

"Will this do?"

I tried to smile and make it that a gun didn't worry me, but before I knew it I collapsed backwards again, feeling Erik's chest rise and fall, grateful to know he was still alive.

Then I knew no more.


	30. My mother, my enemy

**_Chapter by gpshaw _**

**Fred**

_0:53:06_

Both Erik and Jade were laying hurt badly… and the woman standing aiming the gun at them was my mother. I had always known in a way that my mother was one of them, after my father was killed at the DMV she had gotten a job as an RN she had become very skilled and knew as much as most doctors. After I went away to college she had changed, she began to ignore my sister for her job, which she had never done.

I never thought I'd meet her here through, my sister told me she had gone away to medical school. She aimed the gun at Jade and Erik, I had one chance and no time to think. I spit venom at her and hit her square in the eyes. The laser shot went wildly into the top of the room, somehow no water came in I ran over as fast as I could which was fast in my snake body and bit her.

I held the hold pumping the deadly venom into my mothers veins. When I was sure I had given a deadly dose I gave a thought speak message.

(Sorry mom, I still love you…) I said it just in time the snake could feel the blood in the jugular vein stop pumping (Ian, is there any danger of me being spotted?)

(None) Ian said.

(Good keep it that way)

(Hey, don't boss Ian around!) Robert snapped.

(Look we don't have time for this! If I can't demorph both Erik and Jade are dead) That shut him up. I demorphed quickly and ran over. Erik must've been hit with a dracon beam his shoulder was smoking, Jade had been stabbed and was bleeding freely. Karen had just finished up her fight and demorphed. She ran over to Erik.

"Is he…" she was near tears.

"No, he's alive, come on, we've gotta wake both of them up" I noticed my mother was carrying a medical bag I walked over to her and opened the bag trying not to look into my mothers lifeless eyes. I saw what I was looking for; stimulants.

I ran over and injected a full syringe into Jade and Erik's necks. Erik came around quickly. He demorphed into a hug from Karen then he saw Jade, who was coming to slower. He helped her to her feet he was getting blood on his hands.

"Come on Jade, mor-shift" he was saying. I saw Jade's eyes were glazed "Stay with me now, stay with me, focus, come on, focus, become the tigress…" Jade began to change, and soon she was a tigress.

"You ok?" Erik asked.

(Fine) Jade sounded tired (Let's go) We re-entered our battle morphs, I went to my Timber wolf morph only Karen, who had seen what happened between my mother and I knew why I didn't want to go back to cobra.

(Ok) Robert said (I got good news and bad news for you, which one do you want to hear first)

(I need some good news) Erik said.

(Well the good news is I think we've found the cure, and the bad news is that we're surrounded by Yeerks, Ian did something to the doors so they can't get in yet but we need you to clear the area)

(We'll be there ASAP) Erik said. Then he reached into the bag he brought that I forgot about. He used his cat jump to plant it in the centre of the tube looking out into the ocean. As we ran I noticed there weren't many enemies only occasionally we'd run into a Taxxon or Hork-Bajir that Erik and Jade made short work of. We placed charges as we went and soon we had enough planted to destroy the place. Now all we needed was to get the cure.

(Um, wait a minute…) Erik began (have we thought about an exit plan?)

(I thought we'd just go fish and…)

(Hell no!) I said (Do you have any idea what's going to happen when we set off the C-4? It's going to send a blast of water so powerful it's going to crush anything within a two-mile radius. I have a remote detonator that works at one mile and can be set on a timer, but I need to be human to do it. We need to get on one of those submarines)

(No problem) Jade said (There's an emergency area here with twenty of the things once we get through we here we can go over there)

(If we get past the mad rush of the area) Erik said.

(And the Visser's men) I added.

(And keep the cure intact in the process) Jade put in.

(The odds are about six billion to one) Erik said.

(That's just the way the Black Angels like 'em) Jade replied.

(Us too) Karen agreed.


	31. Escaping the Visser

_**Chapter by gpshaw**_

**Erik**

_0:27:55_

I had jumped on a live grenade and had my insides turned to soup by my own stomach acid, I had been dragged underwater and nearly drowned, I had been shot in the shoulder by my best friends mother, I had take a girl pregnant by a man I didn't even know to a hospital and got labelled as an unwed father, I had gone out on a sword boat twice, I had roomed in a hotel room that was made more for one-night stands than for sleeping, I had seen my friend get sick and be put on deaths door in less than three days, and now I was jumping and putting C-4 on plexiglass tubes while running through an underwater lab periodically stopping to gut aliens. All in a months work.

We soon found the reason why there was little resistance in other halls. There were at least 80 other Hork-Bajir, 20 Taxxons and 30 human controllers.

(Whoa boy!) Jade cried.

We charged I pounced and took out the more heavily armed human controller with a neck bite. A horde of Taxxons began to circle I was able to pick most of them off by rearing up and clawing at them. A dracon beam seared me relieving me of the fur on my right side.

"Moron, don't fire in here!" A voice said "If we hit that glass the whole place is going to flood and we'll be short a cure and-ahhh!" Whoever it was saying that had just been tackled by a wolf which was proceeding to rip and tear at his throat. To my right was Jade taking on four Hork-Bajir, to my left Karen was trampling over thirty of our various enemies.

Through a window I got a glimpse in the room of the scene. Robert had taken some other form which looked suspiciously like a young Harrison Ford. He had a man in a lab coat in a headlock with a scalpel to his throat. Ian was holding a vial filled with a bright white liquid. It seemed the scientist was being forced to make more.

(Ian, what's going on in there?) I asked biting a Hork-Bajir in the stomach.

(Robert has Jonas Sauk over here making a new cure so we'll have enough for our friends, keep them distracted until he does)

(Got it, oh and Ian, I hereby restore your authority, with my apologies)

(Thanks) we kept on fighting. I used the cat's reflexes to weave around the Hork-Bajir's slashes each miss they made resulted in their being cut down. Karen was easily handling the many attackers on her, Jade was fighting four on one and prevailing. It looked like we were going to win, then another group of Hork-Bajir. Karen charged and took out a few, but most of them slipped by her. Jade and I went to work on them.

(How many Hork-Bajir are in this dump) Karen sneered. She had been cut up (as had all of us) but wasn't in any real danger.

(A lot) Jade said as another group came charging in. Already I was tired, the cat mind wanted to retreat. My legs were already tired and jumping was becoming more and more difficult.

(Any time now Ian…) Fred said.

(Just a minute it takes time for him to make it…) We had defeated another group but the wear and tear was certainly beginning to be felt. Suddenly the doors to the lab opened.

"What the fuck!" Robert yelped.

(Damn, someone overwrote the door lock!) Ian cried.

(Three guesses who…) I said glumly. I heard the Vissers voice. He was strong again.

(Excellent rouges you have created more of the cure, sadly you will not live to use it I have already received my treatment, and now you will die) He laughed evilly (And even if you escape the cure will not work, it has been engineered only to work for me, so rouges, you die now, goodbye…) More hordes of Hork-Bajir appeared. Robert and Ian looked furious. Robert cut the scientists neck.

I couldn't blame them, all this work, and now Becky, Amanda, they would… die. I heard Karen crying.

(Come on!) I yelled while fighting (We have a chance still, maybe we can rework the cure! I know that Rally girl could do it. Come on!) Ian looked relieved.

(That's right) He said (The Visser assumes we don't have the technology to fix it, let's go) Ian and Robert charged into battle and we began to fight our way through the halls. Soon we reached the submarine area. Standing there was the Visser and a group of Hork-Bajir.

(You rouges are far more powerful than I suspected. I see your Changeling friend still carries the cure. Your knowledge is of little use to you young Changeling, without your precious ships and the scientists the cure you have will only make things worse. Kill them!) He walked onto one of the subs. The guards attacked. I was exhausted but I had another fight in me.

I ran into battle and ripped a Hork-Bajir's stomach open, he slashed me on my head but did little damage. The sub left the port. Ian ran past the guards and opened one of the hatches.

"Get in! Get in!"

(No fucking way!) Fred and Robert said together.

("Live today fight tomorrow") I said (Get your asses on the sub) I ran in. Karen followed (having to do a slight morph to get in) Jade raced in after her. Robert and Fred got on the sub reluctantly. I closed the hatch (Ian, are there any cameras in here?)

"None" he said "Demorph now" We all demorphed or shifted back except Jade. I remembered the attack… Ithiell took the controls and soon we were flying. Then I saw something, something that made my blood run cold: the timer on the detonator was active! It was counting down from five minutes.

"Oh shit!" I yelled "Ithiell we've got to move this thing is going to blow any minute now!" Ithiell tried to make the submarine run faster. Suddenly we heard an explosion. I looked behind us. There was a mass of water heading full force at us. The lab was gone and body parts and blood were mixed with debris, which were all heading for us at miles per hour.

The sub was moving very fast now, but the sub was catching up on us.

"Surface Ithiell!" I yelled. We began to move up. The wall got closer…closer… I saw the surface, closer… I could see the bottom of our boat. Closer… I could see the severed head clearly in the torrent now. The wall was right on us… we broke the surface only feeling a slight bump in the water.

All of us were panting. Karen turned to me and kissed me hard.

"HA!" She yelled "WE DID IT!" Ithiell turned to me and smiled.

"Yeah, I'll get the cure to Rally. I have a model of its chemical makeup, it wont take long to make the cure ourselves by the time we get to Gloucester we'll have it" He looked relieved and so did Karen and… Robert? What the heck…

We climbed on board, with Ithiell shifting to human again. Once we were all on board he turned to Jade.

"Why haven't you shifted? You're drawing attention to yourself"

(I… I cant, I…)

"Were you hurt? You know it won't help to stay like this, you'll have to go back sooner or later" Jade reluctantly shifted back. She was bleeding instantly, and collapsed on her knees. I ran over to grab the radio.

"Mayday, mayday! Coast Guard Boston, this is the fishing vessel _Cosby King,_ AKA Ozzy Faith 32242 we have an attack on a pregnant woman, I say again attack on a pregnant woman. Requesting immediate airlift to medical facility. Over" there was static. I was scared. _Oh god, please let it work, don't jam our radios._ I crossed myself and prayed the Hail Mary. I heard the commotion outside but ignored it I needed to focus on getting help. I was not going to be responsible for the death of a child!

"This is coast guard chopper 32862 we copy your mayday and are en-route to your position. ETA 120 minutes. Over" I thanked them but knew two hours was a long time. I ran outside. Jade was out cold with her shirt half up and Ian trying to stop the bleeding. I thought back to the little medical school I'd had so far. I ran into the pilot house and got the medical kit hoping and praying it had some kind of coagulant to stop the bleeding. I was in luck, I found a tube of something labelled coagulant and ran back out.

I applied the cream to her wound it slowed the bleeding, but then I noticed she was bleeding elsewhere too. Suddenly I heard the chopper, I looked up and the orange and white coast guard chopper was dropping a stretcher, its searchlight near blinding. Ian and I lifted Jade onto the stretcher.

"Go with her" Ian said.

"What?" I asked.

"They think you're the father, go or it'll put suspicion on you!" I waved my hands above my head after the stretcher was drawn up it was dropped again and I climbed on. One of the guardsmen approached me.

"Sir, what is your relation sir?"

"Husband" I said.

"Sir if you fly with us stand aside and let us do our job sir"

"No problem" I said.

_**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x**_

The trip was short with this kind of speed we were at the hospital in no time. I was ushered into the waiting room while Jade was in surgery. I waited four terrible hours until a surgeon came out. I ran over to him.

"Is she ok?" the surgeon frowned.

"Mr Bishop, your wife is recovering, she had a transfusion of blood she'll be ok…" He stalled and I knew what was coming next.

"But we lost the baby" He said. I cried like it was my own child that had been lost.


	32. Discovering the cure

**Karone-sakura; thankyou for all your support, and thanks for reviewing! It means a lot to both of us, and I hope you'll stick around.**

**By the way, we're doing another called Chaos (its on gpshaws page) and he's got his own one called Glass Dagger. Check em out if you have the time, ok?**

**And thanks again! Lots of cookies for you!**

**LM's chapter**

**Robert**

When Jade collapsed, bleeding profusely, and Erik ran inside, Ian immediately jumped into action. He lifted Jade's shirt just enough to not be embarrassing to her, then ripped his own jacket and shirt off, then pressed down with a certain amount of pressure, to try and stop the bleeding. On her left side, I saw the beginning of the scar that was on her side, and I reminded myself that we'd all been through worse. I had to believe it, for if we lost her, then Amanda…

Well, the Black Angels would be no more than a memory on anyone's lips.

"Robert! You remember the bag I left on the stern of the ship?"

"Yeah"

"Get it, and hurry! We only have a few seconds at most"

I did, and brought it back as quickly as I could.

"Karen, hold the pressure there for a minute"

"Don't you _dare _go…"

"Fred, we don't have time for this. If they think any of us did this, then it's over for all of us. Karen, please"

"All right" she said, replacing Ian when he moved. Ian dove through the bag, tossing out this and that, before he pulled out what looked a large computer memory system. Then, something that looked almost like a control for a detonator. He shoved the things back in, then passed it to me.

"Put it in the sub, and attach this console to the controls on the sub. Use this…" he handed me what looked like a nifty new age screwdriver. I knew it was something alien. I did as he said, and when I came back out I saw Fred was attaching the small detonator thing on the side. Ian was fussing with what looked like a toy car control, and Karen was still holding it there. Then he gave it to Karen, and took over trying to control the bleeding. He said something to Karen when Fred was done, and she pushed one of the little joysticks. Suddenly the sub roared to life, speeding away across the water.

"Good, keep it that speed, and don't let it drop below that. Hopefully the hologram projector will kick in about… now" I watched in awe as I suddenly saw a speed boat in place of the sub. Ian smiled and flicked his wrist with the watch on it, then spoke in it.

"Lowri, I need you too keep up the projection until I say, can you do that?"

There was a muttered response, and he flicked his wrist again. Erik soon came back out, applying something that looked like cream to her wound. It seemed to be helping.

"Karen, take the control downstairs and keep it going in the exact same direction. Don't let anyone see it, alright?"

"Sure" she disappeared, and that's when the helicopter arrived. They took Jade up, then Erik, and the bright lights of the copter soon disappeared. Then, Karen came back up. Ian must have told her to.

"Stay up here, and if you see a police copter, or boat, point in the exact direction the sub's heading, all right?"

"Now wait just a minute…" Fred seemed furious, but Ian had already run downstairs.

"Fred, please, for the sake of Jade, Becky and Amanda. Listen to Ian. He has a plan to help us out of this mess, all right?" It sounded like I was begging. In a way I almost was. The stakes were too high now to be fighting with each other. We had to do what needed to be done or three of us would die, and the rest of us would be captured and probably Yeerked, and if that happened, there went the whole damn war.

Ian came up seconds later, set up what looked like an emergency radio (looking a lot more high tech than that) and something that looked like a plastic photo frame. He took the control from Karen, then attached the plastic thing to the top. Then, he turned the radio on, making me realise it was more than a radio.

"… _patrol boat 32, the suspected speed boat is getting away"_

"_Keep up with it, we're almost in your vicinity"_

"_Too fast, nearly losing it!"_

"_Don't let it escape, it's suspected of having the perp that stabbed a pregnant woman not even two hours before!"_

"_Trying, it…"_

I looked over at Ian, who was playing with the controls and grimacing. I suddenly realised the plastic thing was like a screen, and he could see everything the sub saw, almost like he was in it himself. It seemed like he was heading for an alcove, which seemed to have a cave in it. Either that or a very, very dark area.

"_It's heading for the cave!"_

"_Follow it, maybe we can track it in…"_

"_No! It's turning. Oh god… no!"_

"_What, what's it doing!"_

"_It's lost control! Heading for the wall of the cave!"_

"_Stop it!"_

"_It's…"_

Seconds later there was an explosion far off, and the three of us standing jumped. Ian smiled.

"All in a days work"

"What the fuck! What'd you do!" Fred cried, turning and glaring at Ian.

"I made them think the 'perp' made a suicide run. Now, they'll believe either our phantom attacker is either dead or escaped through the dark cave. Don't worry about the debris, I made sure there isn't even enough for scrap metal"

"You did that…to…"

"To make sure they don't look at us. We don't have time for this. Fred, get us moving back to Gloucester, and if the Police catch up to us, we'll just describe our attacker, and tell them Jade was up top, alone, when the guy struck. Other than that, I don't think there's much else we can do" we made sure we got our story straight as Fred started to take us back there. The police _did_ catch up to us, but by then Ian had called Lowri who had picked him up along the way (discreetly). Ian had taken the vials of formula, the model of its chemical makeup, and the dagger Fred had unearthed from his pocket. Jade's dagger.

We told him the story, and they went through hours of questioning with us on the boat. Thankfully our story was solid enough, and they let us go to go take care of our 'friends'.

It was a long ride there. For the most part, the three of us were silent, especially Fred. I dropped something on the deck once, just once, and he almost chewed my head off. I backed off quickly, the fight in me almost completely gone.

"What the heck's his problem?" I muttered, leaning on the side of the cabin outside, looking up at the rising sun.

"I suppose you don't know what happened down there" Karen said harshly, making me jump.

"No, I don't Karen. You know, it's kinda hard to when you've got a guy in a headlock, and trying not to freak as over a hundred controllers bang on the door outside. So yeah, I _don't_ know. Why don't you tell me?"

Okay, I was lying. I still had some fight in me.

"Fred had to kill his mother to save Erik and Jade" Karen's tone was cruel as she stood by me, on the other side of the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You're shittin' me"

"No, I'm not"

"Oh. Oh man. I… I would never be able to do that. My mum means everything to me, I couldn't…" I fell silent, and just nodded in understanding. Karen seemed surprised, but let it go. We fell silent for a moment.

"Why didn't Jade tell us she was…"

"Because she wanted to help. She gives a lot of herself, and only asks to be treated with respect in return" I said, then laughed. It had taken me nine years to realise that about her.

"She sounds like a good ally"

"She is"

We fell silent, before Karen said again "Do you think Ian and Rally will make it in time?"

"I honestly don't know. What I _do_ know, is that they're gonna try as hard as they can. Black Angels are tough to kill"

"So are we"

"That you are. Remember that though. Becky will be all right, don't worry" I gave her a two fingered salute, then went back inside.

_**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**_

Two days later we arrived. I doubt any of us even slept. We reached the dock at ten thirty at night, and grabbed our things, checking the boat thoroughly over once more, then heading inside.

Erik and Jade were no-where to be found, but instead we did find Ian and Rally in one room, with all kinds of weird equipment, both of them looking exhausted as they looked through microscopes and tried to rework the virus.

Then we checked on Becky and Amanda. They were both in the one room, and both looked worse than before. Becky was unconscious, and Amanda was slumped in chair, looking more pale than I'd ever seen her. There was a small bucket on her lap, probably for puking in, and her hands looked almost lifeless.

Fred checked their pulses, and turned back to us, the fear in his eyes unmistakable.

"They're pulses are weak, I don't know how much longer they can…"All of a sudden Becky mumbled something incoherent, and as we turned and watched in horror, she began to morph. She only got halfway through it before she took a swipe at us.

We jumped back, barely getting out of the way as her half-formed crocodile body fell out of the bed, snapping at us. Then her eyes rolled up into her head, and she demorphed, then slumped on the floor, looking exhausted.

Rally ran in mere seconds later, injecting something into both of them as quickly as she could. Becky calmed down, and Karen and Fred helped her back up onto the bed. Amanda shifted her weight on the chair, but other than that she hardly stirred.

"Was that the…"

"No, just an infusion of herbs. I've had to put it straight into their veins for the last few days. They even throw up water now. But this won't last for long"

"How close are you to a cure?"

"Close, but not close enough" She sighed, then left the room, grim.

For the next few hours we watched as Amanda, and especially Becky, shook and shivered, and went through various animal forms before they'd settle for a little, before they started up again, each time getting worse. It was clear to all five of us that they wouldn't last much longer than a few more hours. Maybe not even.

Erik arrived half an hour later, looking tired and deflated. There were red rings around his eyes.

"What? What is it? Is Jade okay?" I asked, taking time away from resettling Amanda to go over to him.

"She's… all right. But… but she lost the baby"

For some reason this information was like ice in my heart. I was glad Jade was all right, but for her to loose the baby… I knew she'd never be the same again.

"Where is she then?" Karen asked, going over to hug him.

"At the hospital. She could be in there for another week. She's been unconscious ever since they took her there. They told me to get some rest, and they'd call me when she was awake. I didn't want to leave her, but… are they…"

"It won't be much longer. If Ian and Rally don't find the cure!" Karen suddenly snapped, furious.

"They're doing all they can! So just back off!" I snapped, and it looked like she was about to come and hit me, but Erik stopped her.

"Mould the calf" Amanda muttered, her head going from side to side. I could tell Karen was about to say something, but Rally and Ian bursting into the room stopped her.

"We think we have it! Oh god I hope we have it. Rally" Ian pointed to Becky, and he came over with a syringe in his hand, and injected her with a whitish blue liquid, and I could see Rally was doing the same thing with Becky.

Seconds later they were both shaking violently.

"What have you done to them!" Fred yelled as he held Becky down, and Ian and I each held one of Amanda's arms.

"Don't worry, it'll pass!" Ian yelled.

"Their bodies are now fighting the virus with the help of the new strains we developed!" Rally added as Karen nearly pounded her one.

After what seemed an eternity, but was only in the space of about forty seconds, both Becky and Amanda seemed to calm down. The shaking subsided, and they both looked they were in REM sleep.

"Did it…"

"Just a second" Rally said, then pulled something out and put it against Becky's neck. There was a tense few seconds, before the thing made a beeping sound, and Rally removed it to look at it.

"It _is_ working, although it might take a few days before they're up on their feet again. Their bodies need time to remove the virus from their systems"

"So, they'll be all right?" Karen asked eagerly. Rally nodded, managing a rare smile.

"Yes, they'll be fine from now on. But I suggest we all take a small dose just in case"

And with that the threat was over. The Yeerks had come close to destroying us all, but we'd managed to survive again. One more time.

Now, it was just the matter of getting Jade back. It was going to be a rough ride, but I knew she'd make it.


	33. Letting go

**LM**

**Robert**

I made the decision on the third day that I was at the hospital, watching Jade. Becky and Amanda were recovering, and Ian and Karen had opted to watch over the two until they were better. Believe it or not, Fred and Erik helped with the shifts here at the hospital. I told them I was her cousin (I took her last name as well), and Fred was one of her best friends.

They seemed to accept this, and we were let in to watch her during visiting hours. Only Erik, who they believed to be her husband, was allowed after hours. I wondered how Marco would react to that. It made me laugh almost. But remembering he didn't know about his lost child just made me stop in my tracks.

My decision? To end the relationship with Becky. It wasn't out of spite, or that I didn't like her, it was just… that eventually I knew I was going to end up hurting her. And I couldn't let that happen to Becky. I cared about her too much to hurt her.

Five days after Rally had given her the cure, she was walking and talking just like she used to. Well, almost. There was still that slight glazed look to her eyes, and black rings under them. Not to mention her skin colour was still very pale. Not as bad as before, but still noticeable.

When I was lying in my bed, trying to get some sleep before I knew I'd have to go back to the hospital, there was a knock on my door. I got up, and when I opened the door I was surprised to find none other than Becky there.

"Hi. Can I come in?" she asked, smiling. Her eyes were bright as ever, in spite the dark rings under them.

"Yeah. I uh… needed to talk to you anyway" she came in, and I shut the door behind her.

"What's up?" She asked, and I guess she saw the look on my face. I sat her down, knowing whatever I said was just going to be the wrong thing.

"Becky, I… I don't think we should see each other… romantically… anymore"

"Wh-what? Why? What's-"

"Becky, for sixteen years of my life my father beat and raped my mother. It was only after I almost killed him one night that he backed off. They divorced when I was seventeen, and even though my mother was free of him, she still didn't want him to suffer. Her mind is so screwed up she thinks she deserved it after all those years. And… and I don't want to become…"

"You don't want to become your father? I… I understand… a little, but…"

"Look Becky, it's not that I hate you or anything like that. I care so much about you, more than I have anyone else, and… it kills me to… but I don't want to hurt you. And… you deserve better than a lowlife like me anyway…"

"You're not a lowlife! Robert, I don't understand where this is all coming from. That night on the boat, you…"

I kneeled in front of her, trying to get her to understand. I wished…

"Look Becky, I've already started on that road years ago. I'm a Black Angel, and I've done some horrible things, both as a warrior, and as Robert Kessely. And I care about you too much to drag you any further into me. You know too much about me already, and if you dig any further you'll get to the worst part of me. And I don't want you to see that. Now, please, listen to me. Go and find someone that deserves to be with such a wonderful person like you, and live your life the way you should"

"Robert, I… all right then, if that's what you want" she looked near tears.

"It's what I know would be better for both of us. Save those tears on someone better than me, ok?"

"All right. Fine. But… we'll still be friends" she was fighting back her tears, as well as her own emotions. I was barely holding on myself.

"Yes. We will"

"All right then. I… I guess I should go and rest. Karen says I need to take it easy if want to get better soon" she sniffled, getting up. I took her hand, kissing it one more time, my heart denying what my head knew to be true.

"Please believe me when I say I never wanted to hurt you like this" I said softly, and she nodded and tried to smile, not quite pulling it off. I let her go, and she practically ran out of the room, half slamming the door behind her.

I rubbed my face, then put a hand over my eyes and nose, fighting back my own emotions. Seconds later I lost, and soon my whole face was streaked in tears.

Becky was the first girl to make me feel wanted and special. She was also the first girl to make me cry like a baby.

But in the end, I was only destined for one thing. And that was to be alone.

_**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**_

**Amanda**

When I was well enough, and when Ian stopped fussing like I was a hurt animal, I went to see Jade in the hospital. Being near death by a virus sure made me value life a lot more.

Sadly, Ian had told me all that had happened while I was puking and crapping my vital organs out (well, it seemed that way). About Jade being stabbed, and about her loosing the baby. It was the worst news I could ever hear, and I couldn't even go check on her until I myself was better.

Robert agreed to take me there, looking like he hadn't slept in a month. His eyes were red and he had rings under his usually light blue eyes. That day, they looked dull. Like he was barely aware of the world around him.

I went into that hospital room, alone, since Robert was muttering something about getting his stuff together for the ride back home as soon as Jade was all right. Erik was there, looking like he was sound asleep. Jade, I saw, wasn't. Her eyes were streaked with tears, and were all red and puffy. She was staring blankly at something behind Erik.

"Jade?" I went in cautiously, and when she turned her head it seemed like her whole face lit up.

"Amanda! You're all right!" She reached out to me, and I ran over and hugged her tightly, careful not to knock her off the other side of the bed.

"I'm fine. Brush with death? Pffft! Nothin to it" I backed up, brushing it off like a bad hair day. She smiled sadly, her eyes deep pits of sorrow.

"Oh Mandy. I'm so sorry I couldn't have been there for you. If you had died…" tears welled in her eyes again, and I'm sorry to say, but I wasn't far behind her.

"Oh Jade, you're so melodramatic! I can't die, I'm an angel already remember? Well, a black one, but still an angel. But enough about me! How are you? How long until you get out, and we can all go home and make fun of Casey in that dumb suit of his? Not to mention the mountains of chocolate we have to eat for missing out for so long"

Jade gave a weak laugh, nodding a little.

"I'm all right. The doc says I'll be out in another week, but I'll have to take it extremely easy. In other words, I get to sit on my butt for about three weeks straight and do nothing" she tried to laugh again, but it came out strained.

"Oh sweetie, I know. Don't worry, Ian's doing what you asked, and soon you'll find out"

"Find out what?" Erik asked in a sleep-clogged voice, sitting up and opening his eyes to look at us. He smiled at me, then looked at Jade. I took Jade's hand and squeezed it in assurance. She squeezed back, and sighed.

"Before… when Ian visited… he told me he still had the dagger. I asked if he could find out the… the sex of the baby by using the blood… because I knew the blade hit it… from the dagger" She fought back more tears, and I sat on the bed beside her, giving her a little sideways hug. Then I sat by her as Erik looked surprised.

"He can… do that?"

"Well, he said he'd try. He also came and took a look at whatever it was… although not exactly… human, if you get my drift"

"But… why do you need to know?"

"Just so I can know, and remember without… being like this" she didn't look like she bought her own words.

"All right then" Erik scratched his head, shrugging. There was an uncomfortable silence between the three of us, before she started talking about all the things she knew she had to do when we got back. Erik finally left, telling us he needed a coffee, leaving just us two alone.

"Amanda?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you do a massive favour for me?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you… can you tell him for me? Please? He really… he really needs to…"

"Don't worry. He'll know by the end of the week"

_**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**_

Being the friend I was, I headed out to the valley as soon as I was able to. Robert would cover for me, I knew, since I told him where I was going. Ian would already know, and although I knew he wouldn't like it, I went off by myself anyway. I felt it was extremely important that Marco knew ASAP.

I flew out over the land, a pigeon hawk, riding the thermals and doing all I could to keep my speed up. Twice I had to stop, but other than that I was making pretty good time. I got to the valley in about six hours.

As fingers shot out of feathers, I looked around and saw the six of them, all in a group, talking not far from where I'd landed. Soon, whatever was happening stopped, and they all walked, or flew, away from one another. When I was human again I ran after Marco, feeling like my feet were made of lead.

"Marco! Hey, wait up!" I tripped and stumbled, before I finally reached him. I felt a little worn out, but other than that I was ok. It must have been the after-effects of the virus. He turned around, looking a little surprised when I reached him, and then his face became blank. I knew, he thought the worst just then.

"What? What is it? Is Jade…"

"Jade's still alive, if that's what you mean. Look, I need to talk to you… away from everyone else here"

"Okay" we went further away from the campsite to talk.

"Marco, I've got something to tell you, and unfortunately you're not going to like hearing it"

He stood there, silent. I guess, in a way, he knew what was coming.

"When Jade was… fighting… she… she was human for a little and she… well, she got stabbed in the stomach" I paused when I saw his face cloud over in recognition. But I continued anyway. I knew I had to.

"Marco, Jade lost the baby. Your baby"

He was silent for a few moments, staring at me. Or, staring at nothing. Then, he crouched on the ground and started to rock himself on his heels.

"Oh god no" he croaked. I kneeled beside him, resting my hand on his shoulder. I felt him start to shake. I knew what was coming, and all I could do was be there when it came.

"It's all right Marco. Let it out"

"God no, god no, god, please no" he whispered, his hands clasped and resting on his mouth. He then tugged at his hair, burying his face into the ground.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

_**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x—x-x-x-x**_

I flew back with Marco, since he wanted to see if Jade was ok. We had to stop a few more times, but when we got there I know he was happier at the thought of seeing Jade again. Marco morphed another male, some weird mix between Jake and Robert. No doubt he'd talked to Ax about joining the two. We went into the hospital, after I found a proper pair of pants and shoes for him, as well as a shirt. Erik wasn't in the room, and when Marco saw Jade, he rushed right in and hugged her tight. She seemed glad to see him too. Well, after she found out who it was.

Thankfully I'd brought Ian along into this, and he conveniently got a few of the lights and security cameras to 'malfunction'. I thought it was for the best.

I watched as they kissed and hugged, and held each other tight, like neither would ever let go of each other again. I saw tears falling down Jade's cheeks, and I quietly shut the door. Too bad for the small window in the door though.

"Who's that?" Erik asked as he sipped on a cup of tea or coffee or something and looked through the window.

"That? Well, that's… Mark. Her boyfriend"

"Mark? Well, he doesn't look like that much to me"

I might have detected a hint of jealousy in Erik's voice. I couldn't be sure.

"Trust me Erik. Looks aren't everything. And them… they could look like monsters and still love each other to bits"

"Don't I know it" he muttered, with no anger in his voice whatsoever. He took another sip of his drink, still looking into the room.

"Oh come on you, they need some time alone" I took his arm, gently leading him away from the door. To my surprise, he smiled at me.

"You're right. Now, do you want something to drink?"

A little while later Ian came to the hospital. He found out what it was.

It was a boy.


	34. Goodbye Glass Dagger

**LM**

**Jade**

When I was able to leave the hospital, we packed our bags and left Gloucester in almost the exact way we came from. Amanda rode ahead with Robert, who seemed lost within himself. I didn't know what had happened to him, but he seemed different.

Glass Dagger opted to stay at our place for the next few days, to Sal's objections and Casey's amusement to it all. But other than that, neither went into a mad rage, and we just had to move a few of us around for a bit. Amanda and I stayed in the same room, and so did Robert and Ian. Karen and Becky shared a room, and Casey was polite enough to move out of his room so Fred and Erik could share it. Why the four stayed, none of us knew. But Fred made us all breakfast (which totally blew my attempt at cooking out of the water) and Erik, Karen and Becky made themselves useful around the house as well. Ian went back to work, and made sure my work knew where I was and what happened (making sure they didn't call attention to us) so I knew I wouldn't be working for a while.

Most of these days I just sat watching T.V, although not really watching it. Other days I just lay on my bed, staring at the wall. Not even Becky or Amanda's amazingly positive attitudes could shake me out of the deep depression I'd somehow slipped into since we'd gotten back.

Part of me believed I didn't deserve it, and that it was all my fault it was dead. The rest of me was just numb with grief.

On one of my 'lay in bed all day' sessions, Amanda and Ian went out for some reason or other. Robert took off to his dorm, muttering that he'd be back soon. Everyone else… I didn't know.

I stared at the wall, still in some raggy clothes I'd found, hardly moving. At what I thought was about eleven, I heard the door being turned and the lock doing its job. There was someone knocking, but I ignored them. Too bad. I should've answered.

Approximately thirty seconds later there was a fast growing roach on the side of the bed. That roach soon had red hair.

I sat up as that roach became Erik, and made room on the bed for him as he sat down. I must've looked a mess to him, but for some reason I didn't care. He'd already seen my worst.

"Hey, how are you?"

"All right. A bit bored, honestly. All this waiting until my stitches heal is just a bit dull and that"

"Ah. I um… we're going to be leaving in a day or so. Will you… will you come out of your room when we do?"

"Yeah. Sorry, but I just can't believe all this stuff has happened. You know, the virus, the fact that Amanda nearly died for the second time around… you guys…"

"And your pregnancy?"

I barked a laugh "Oh yeah, don't forget that. Trust me, it's better to never know what it feels like. Wanting kids… well, not anymore I can tell ya that much"

As strange as it was, I felt no anger or malice whatsoever as I said this. Erik smiled wearily.

"So, you and Mark aren't…"

"No. Not anymore. At least… not until this whole war and junk is over with. And I've got a feeling that might take a while"

"If you can still…"

"Yeah, if I can still have 'em. Doesn't worry me though"

"You sure?"

"Yep. Sure. Now, is everything else ok? Everyone still alive or is that why you sneaked under my door as a disgusting roach?"

He looked a little embarrassed, then shrugged.

"Sorry. Just thought you needed some company"

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah. Actually, I think I _do_ need company right now. Thanks, thanks a lot Erik. I honestly don't know where I'd be without you"

"Same here. You risked your life to save me down there. I'll never forget it"

"Good" I got up, and so did Erik. I smiled at him.

"And why is that… good?" He asked a little worriedly as I walked to the door and unlocked it. He followed me out.

"Because if I remember correctly, you still owe me… oh, say, five"

_**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**_

Well, on a very calm, warm Sunday morning they decided to leave. They had their bags packed and were loading them into the back of Fred's truck. Finally, they turned to the four of us. We were all lined up outside. Casey and Sal were no-where to be found.

"Well…" Becky began, avoiding eye contact with Robert.

"Yeah, well" Ian said, smiling at her.

"We're off"

"Gee, I never thought it would end this way" I sighed, smiling cheekily. Amanda nudged my shoulder, stifling a giggle. I barely kept one in myself. It was just too nice a day to feel sad.

"Here's a list of numbers, including our watch/phones, for you to take with you. You know, in case you get into trouble or whatever and need backup" I stepped forward and handed Erik the piece of paper.

"Thanks. And if you…"

"We'll give you a holler on an unused frequency. So Becky, if you hear a panicked voice…" Ian trailed off, and she laughed.

"I'll know it's you" She finished. Ian went over and gave her a brief hug, then shook hands with Erik.

"It's been nice knowing you. Even though we've had our… disagreements…"

"Lot's of…" Erik agreed.

"I still hope you'll consider me a friend, and someone you can count on"

"Don't worry. I do"

"Great to know. Take care of yourself, and your team"

"Same to you"

Ian then went over and shook hands with Karen and Fred, and they seemed alright with him as well. Amanda, being Amanda, went and gave each of them a whopping big hug. When she got to Becky, I swear it was like seeing twins. Very creepy. None of them seemed to mind her… straightforwardness. Fred even managed a slight laugh and patted her on the back.

Then… this nearly bowled me over… Robert went and stuck out a hand to Fred. Fred seemed surprised, but shook his hand anyway. After that it looked like they had been friends their whole lives. It was good to see.

He shook hands with Erik as well, then went over to Karen.

"Karen, I am truly sorry for the way I've acted towards you. I don't have a golden turtle, but…" he shrugged, not sure what else to say. She smiled and nodded though, as if she knew he was going to say it. His shortest goodbye was to Becky, with just a quick nod and barely a single word to her. She didn't do much better.

Then, it was my turn. I hugged Becky tightly, knowing I had her to thank most for her support.

"Thanks sweetie. Don't you stop being so bubbly and active. We need people like you"

"And we need people like you too"

"Not exactly" I moved away from her, then went and gave Fred a brief pat on the shoulder.

"You can put up a good fight when you want to"

"And you're a tricky little bird. You found a way around Erik's words. And if you hadn't, I wouldn't be here. Thanks"

"Welcome" I smiled and shrugged a little, then moved to Karen. She put her hand up to stop me.

"Before you start on me, I want to say something. I have never seen anyone risk their life so many times to save people they barely knew. You gave up your… your life, for all of us, and that's one of the bravest things I've ever seen. Thankyou. You saved Erik so many times… how can I ever make it up to you?"

I was speechless. So, she hugged me. Bear hug kind of hug. Inside, it made me feel good. Then, the words burst out of me like a waterfall.

"Be true to who you are, love Erik with all your heart, and don't stop fighting. That's what you can do for me. You're an amazing woman just as you are"

"Thankyou. Don't you give up either"

"Not a chance in hell" She let go of me, and when I could actually suck in a breath, I turned to Erik.

"I know, I know. I owe you five" he laughed, putting his hands up in mock defence. I couldn't help but laugh as well.

"And don't you forget it. Next time we fight together… and yes, there will be a next time, I'm almost sure of it… you can make it up to me. Now, you'd better get going or we'll all start bawling"

"All right" he gave me a light hug. As he did, he whispered in my ear.

"You gave up your child's life for me. Without you, I'd be dead ten times over. Thankyou. I'll never forget it"

"Diddo" I pulled away and spoke in a slightly louder voice "Now, you have our numbers, and don't you forget, if you need us…"

"We'll call you. Not a problem there"

I stepped back beside Amanda and Ian as they got into the truck. They pulled out of the driveway, waving madly. We waved madly back, and Amanda yelled out,

"Becky, don't forget to write to me!"

"I won't!" She yelled back, and both of them laughed. Finally, the truck sped away left. We watched until it turned a corner, and we couldn't see it anymore. Then, it was just the four of us. Alone.

Robert yawned, stretching "Well, what now?"

"Now? Gee, I have no idea. Unless…" Amanda trailed off, thinking.

"Unless what?"

"Is there any death missions today, oh wise and fearless leader?" She asked, turning to Ian with a devilish smile. He glanced at her, then pretended to look left and right, behind him, up, then at his watch. Then he shrugged, looking mock serious.

"Well, I don't see any. Why don't we take the day off?"

"Together" Robert said softly, letting out a hint of a smile.

"Yeah, together" I went over and slipped my arm through his, smiling up at him. He chuckled.

"Not _that_ together!" he yanked his arm away, and I stuck my tongue out a him.

"Party pooper"

"Well, if no one has any other plans, lets go for brunch" Ian suggested.

"Where though?" Amanda asked, then turned to me. I smiled.

"Chinese! Oh I haven't had Chinese food in _ages_!"

"Good then, let's go for it!"

"Just give me a minute, I need to see if it doesn't blow my bank account sky high" Ian said, heading in. Robert followed, and Amanda and I soon started to make our way in. I slipped my hand into my back pockets, with my hand suddenly hitting something inside my left pocket.

"What the…" I wondered as I pulled out whatever it was. Amanda stopped and was watching me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Don't know. Looks like a piece of paper, but… something else" I opened it, and realised there was a little something else stuck in the paper as well. I read the note.

_For your protection. Also, it reduces the chance of any more… accidents. Take care, and stay safe. Erik._

"What is it?" Amanda asked, coming over to me. But I was laughing too hard by then to answer her. I gave her the paper and she read it, realising what was in my other hand. After a little while we were both in tears we were laughing so hard.

But it was good to laugh. And it was good to know we hadn't heard the last of the Glass Dagger team.

_Prepared from the diaries of Jade Harper, Amanda McLain, Robert Kessely and Ian. For future generations. _

**End.**


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